UAE ramps up cloud seeding to combat water shortage

February 5, 2025, 7:55 AM

UAE cloud seeding — An inside view of the cloud seeding control room at the National Center of Meteorology in Abu Dhabi

UAE to step up cloud seeding efforts
Far cheaper than desalination
300 flights from Abu Dhabi each year

The UAE is stepping up its use of cloud seeding as a cost-effective way to tackle its chronic water shortages.

The technique, which the country first tried in the 1980s, involves shooting a salt flare into a cloud. The salt attracts water, the water drops collide with others and get bigger, and then fall as rain.

Now it is exploring the use of drones and AI to zap the clouds, says Abdulla Al Mandous, director general at the National Centre of Meteorology (NCM) in Abu Dhabi.

Despite the catastrophic floods in Dubai last year, the UAE has average annual rainfall of just 100mm.

Mandous says drone technology could be nine times more effective than current methods of increasing rainfall through cloud seeding – which itself is far less expensive than desalination as a way to increase supplies.

“I am just crossing my fingers that we can succeed. If we do that, it will be a very big breakthrough in cloud seeding.”

The NCM operates four Beechcraft King Air C90 aircraft out of Abu Dhabi’s Al Ain airport, and carries out between 300 and 350 operations a year.

The aircraft carry hygroscopic flares made of natural salts, primarily potassium chloride, which are fired at the base of convective clouds near the updraft core. This process encourages water droplets to clump together and fall as rain.

“We will try to tackle any cloud that we see is beneficial for seeding,” Mandous says.

“According to our studies, for $1 spent on rain enhancement, we spend $25 on desalination.”

This cost comparison takes into account the number of flights and flares, the fuel that has been used, the salaries of the pilots and more.

Steve Griffiths, vice-chancellor for research at the American University of Sharjah, says cloud seeding in the UAE is estimated to have a unit cost of harvestable water of between $0.01 and $0.04 per cubic metre.

This is significantly less than the estimated cost of $0.31 per cubic metre for desalinated water from the most advanced facilities.

“The cost-effectiveness makes it a promising supplementary source,” he says.

Advanced materials

The UAE was one of the first countries in the region to adopt cloud seeding, making its first attempt in 1982. It has since collaborated with international agencies including Nasa.

The NCM has worked with Mauritania, Pakistan and Ethiopia – and Mandous says it is now planning a project in Egypt.

The UAE Rain Enhancement Programme has been conducting scientific studies since 2015, and granted $22.5 million to scientists in that time.

As part of the programme, advanced nanomaterials coated with titanium dioxide have been developed. These are three times more effective than traditional hygroscopic materials in inducing rainfall. They can absorb moisture from the air and are manufactured locally.

cloud seeding UAE — Cloud seeding involves shooting a salt flare into a cloud. The salt attracts water, the water drops collide with others, and then fall as rain

Cloud seeding has its limitations – it is not possible to calculate the exact amount of rainfall created. “Statistically, yes, we can do it, but in reality, you cannot have a definite answer,” Mandous says.

Experts say the UAE also needs to build more infrastructure to gather the rain, including dams and aquifers.

Questions were raised about the role of cloud seeding in the heavy rainfall and flooding last April. However, the NCM clarified at the time that no cloud seeding operations were conducted during this storm.

“The infrastructure in the UAE was designed in an excellent way but, when we sometimes have extreme events – of course it happens – it takes a short time for it to handle this,” Mandous says.

The scale of the problem

It is estimated that around 2 to 3 billion people globally suffer from water scarcity, while water demand is increasing because of population growth, industrialisation and agriculture needs.

The UAE may face a $27 billion total GDP loss between 2022 and 2050 because of droughts, floods and storm conditions.

Ayesha Al Mar’ashi, executive director of the Mohamed bin Zayed Water Initiative, set up in the UAE a year ago, told a conference in Abu Dhabi this week that by 2050, water scarcity is expected to hit around 8 percent of the GDP of high-income countries and up to 15 percent of GDP for low and middle-income countries.

The UAE is located in the middle of the “triangle of thirst”, which stretches from Gibraltar to Pakistan, to the Horn of Africa and Somalia, and is one of the most water-scarce countries in the world.

The country has built a large number of desalination plants to address the water demand of its growing population. However, its underground water levels are still falling.