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Cloud-seeding, prayers: UAE's fix for water woes

Contrary to what is believed, cloud seeding is not creation of rains but an interference to enhance rainfall

The growing population and expansion of the city has put a pressure on the water levels in the Emirates. To ensure that the city receives adequate rainfall this year, The President, His Highness Shaikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan had called for a prayer for rain to be performed at all the mosques across the UAE this week.

To give you a perspective on water consumption, an average UAE resident uses 550 litres of water against the international average of 170-300 litres of water per day. Desalination is the major source of potable water in the UAE and Dubai alone uses 98.8 per cent of the water from desalination. Of this, only 1.2 per cent comes from ground water and a huge amount of money is spent on desalination to cater to the increasing water demand.
 Also Read: Artificial rain in UAE? Experts speak

Beyond divine intervention, the UAE government began cloud seeding a decade ago to boost its water supplies. Contrary to what many believe, cloud seeding is not a creation of rains but man-made interference to enhance rainfall. 
It was reported that UAE had spent Dh2 million on cloud seeding operations in 2015. So, let's take a walk through how cloud seeding is done in the UAE.

1. Cloud seeding is the injection of salt crystals into puffy clouds to create more rain.
2.The clouds are injected by planes which go up to the clouds and launch salt flares into them.
3. These droplets then grow bigger and when the collision of droplets happens, it is called coalescence.
4. When the droplets become too big and moisture can no longer be retained, the droplets come down as rain.
It usually rains 20 minutes after each seeding event. The amount of rainfall received depends on the size of the cloud and the air pressure.
In the UAE, cloud-seeding operations are scattered throughout the seven emirates during the winters but in the summers, the planes are mostly diverted to the eastern regions of the country, including Khorfakkan, Masafi and Fujairah.