The Good Doctor Faces

When The World Cup Final between Argentina and XXX kicks off on Sunday, The Pitch at Lusail Stadium will have been lavished with almost 300 tonnes of water since The start of The Tournament .

To keep The grass playing surfaces in pristine condition in Qatar 's unforgiving desert climate ground staff have been spraying 10,000 litres A Day on The dozens of competition and training pitches that are spread out across The Country .

This immense volume of water underscores The Challenges Qatar - The World 's most water stressed Country - Faces in hosting major sporting events, managing its own growth and trying to minimise its environmental impact.

The problem for ground staff at The World Cup's eight stadiums could have been Even Worse .

Had The Tournament been played in summer as originally planned, each one, along with 136 training pitches, would have needed 50,000 litres of water A Day .

Staff have described preparing elite playing surfaces in Qatar as " a different level of challenge" compared to The conditions in other countries.

While recycled water has been used on The huge 425,000 sq metre emergency grass reserve (40 pitches worth) that has been grown north of Doha for use during The Tournament , water for The Match and training pitches has Come from an artificial Source - desalination.

" If you rely only on The water resources that are naturally available" says Radhouan Ben-Hamadou, an associate professor of marine sciences at Qatar University , " you would only have 14,000 people living in Qatar . "

" That wouldn't even fill one quarter of a World Cup stadium. "

Qatar has no rivers, and gets less than 10cm of rain per year.

Around 2. 9 million people live in The desert nation and The difference between The Number of people Qatar 's water resources can naturally support and The actual population means that extra has to be found Somewhere .

" A very large amount of that water comes from desalination, and almost 100% of The water for kind of personal domestic use, " says Dr Will Le Quesne, The Middle East programme director for The UK Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science.

The Process of desalination takes water from The Sea , removes salt and other impurities, Making It suitable for drinking and washing.

Qatar produces huge amounts of water this way but will rapidly need to produce even more, as it grows, develops and continues with plans to host major sporting events like The World Cup.

Consumption is expected to jump by 10% during The Tournament as around one million tourists visit The Country .

Estimates suggest that by 2050, water desalination capacity could have increased fourfold 80 billion litres per day.

But while Qatar has an effectively limitless supply of seawater and, thanks to huge natural gas reserves, The enormous financial resources needed to produce massive amounts of water this way The Process has one major drawback - it's incredibly energy intensive.

" Ninety-nine point nine per cent of all The energy used for desalination across The Gulf region comes from very cheap supplies of hydrocarbon fuels, " says Dr Le Quesne.

Hydrocarbon fuels, such as oil and gas are highly polluting.

Qatar has set itself environmental targets. It aims to reduce Greenhouse Gas emissions by 25% by 2030 and its World Cup organising committee says The Tournament will be carbon neutral - though that claim has been widely disputed by environmental groups such as Carbon Market Watch.

The Country is looking at changes to reduce its carbon footprint, including in water production.

" There are several developments going on, " says Dr Le Quesne.

" They're looking to use Solar Energy for desalination. This can be solar panels, creating electricity, which then is used for reverse osmosis, or just using The Heat of The Sun directly to evaporate water. "

The Process of reverse osmosis passes seawater through a membrane, effectively sieving out impurities, while evaporation heats water until it vaporises And Then condenses it, leaving behind any impurities.

Solar Power , as well as bringing newer, more energy efficient desalination plants online, is how Qatar hopes to quench The Country 's growing thirst which it also sees as a National Security issue.

After a recent economic blockade by its Gulf neighbours over a political dispute, Qatar suffered food shortages.

As a result it's now rapidly expanding The amount of dairy and agricultural farming that takes place on its arid land. But this will only increase The demand on already limited natural reserves.

" Agriculture uses of One Third of The water resources here in Qatar , while it contributes less than 1% - almost 0. 1% - to The GDP of The Country , " says Dr Ben-Hamadou.

Unlike The majority of countries, Qatar 's heavy investment of its natural resources into food production, is not for export or Economic Growth , but simply so it knows it can feed its population in an emergency.

While Qatar 's energy intensive plans might seem strange to those outside The region, Dr Le Quesne argues it's challenges are in some ways a little different to those faced by many other countries.

" In arid countries you need water, in cold climates you need to heat yourself, and so we all have Our Own challenges to grapple with. "

" I'm quite optimistic as to how The Country and The region will be able to overcome some some of these very energy demanding processes, because you cannot live without water, says Dr Ben-Hamadou.

With Qatar rumoured to be putting together a bid for another huge global sporting event, The 2036 Olympics, there and likely to be many more challenges to Come .

Source of news: bbc.com