Bahrain Island

Iraq, the Bahrain Islands, and Saudi Arabia were the major oil-producmg countries m the region. As a whole, by the end of World War II, the region supplied about 13 percent of the total world production. Middle East oil wells tend to be much more economical than those in North America. There are fewer dry holes, and each mideast well produces on average ten times the volume of a U.S. well. 

There is a final intriguing parallel between the Commagerre and Yemen. As we have seen with the dual Sabian populations, there were also two cities of Dilmun. One is orr Bahrain Island and the other irr the Commagene in Anatolia. 

Reverse osmosis is now extensively used to reduce salt concentrations in brackish waters and to treat industrial waste water, for example, from pulp mills. Reverse osmosis has also proved economical (the cost can be as low as about 1 per 1000 liters) for large-scale desalination of seawater, a proposition of major interest in the Middle East, where almost all potable water is now obtained by various means from seawater or from brackish wells. Thus, at Ras Abu Janjur, Bahrain, a reverse osmosis plant converts brackish feedwater containing 19,000 ppm dissolved solids to potable water with 260 ppm dissolved solids at a rate of over 55,000 m3 per day, with an electricity consumption of 4.8 kilowatt hours per cubic meter of product. On a 1000-fold smaller scale, the resort community on Heron Island, Great Barrier Reef, Australia, obtains most of its fresh water from seawater (36,000 ppm dissolved salts) directly by reverse osmosis, at a cost of about 10 per 1000 liters. 

According to the international organizations more than 50 countries in the world have to face a critical situation with potable water supply. This refers to the south of Europe, North Africa, East and West coast of the USA, coast of Brazil, Argentina, Chili, some regions of India, China, Egypt, Pakistan, Iran, Mexico. Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Yemen and other Arabian Peninsula countries, some of Caribbean Sea, Pacific and Atlantic Ocean islands are almost absolutely arid. 

Delft Hydraulics, AmWaj Island development, Bahrain physical modelling of submerged breakwaters, Report H4087 (2002). 

J. Fowler, T. Stephens, M. Santiago and P. De Bruin, Amwaj Islands constructed with geotubes, Bahrain, CEDA Conf., Denver, USA (2002), http //geotecassociates. com/. H. Funakoshi, T. Siozawa, A. Tadokoro and S. Tsuda, Drifting characteristics of littoral sand around submerged breakwater, Hydro-Port Of, Yokosuka, Japan (1994). 

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