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UAE Billionaire Planning To Drag An Antarctic Iceberg To Australia Or South Africa

UAE Billionaire Planning To Drag An Antarctic Iceberg To Australia Or South Africa

It's a test project to see if they can drag an iceberg to the UAE to provide the country with fresh drinking water.

Stewart Perrie

Stewart Perrie

A plan was hatched two years in the United Arab Emirates to provide the country with fresh drinking water.

While many would suggest a desalination water plant, which sucks water from the sea and takes out the salt for human consumption, some Emiratis thought that was too easy.

So they concocted a plan to drag (yes, drag) an iceberg about 1,000kms off the coast of Antarctica up to above the equator and the general thinking was that they could get their fresh water from it.

While many people thought it was ridiculous, it seems like they are going full steam ahead with it.

But in order to fully prepare the outrageous plan, they're running a test phase later this year.

That will involve dragging a chunk of Antarctic ice to the western coast of Australia or the eastern coast of South Africa. The test will cost a casual $80 million.

The iceberg will come from Heard Island, which is owned by Australia, so odds are on that it'll be dragged to Perth if the test gets the green light.

YouTube/National Advisor Bureau

UAE investor and entrepreneur Abdulla Alshehi has told Euronews: "As per our analysis, it will be cheaper to bring in these icebergs rather than using desalination water (gained by stripping the salt out of sea water.)

"Desalination plants require a huge amount of capital investment and mean pumping a huge amount of sea water to the gulf, killing fish and marine life.

"We believe it will be economically better and more environmentally friendly to use the icebergs, not just for the United Arab Emirates, but throughout the world."

According to the Daily Mail, if they were able to bring an iceberg that was 2km long and 500 metres wide, it would provide enough fresh water for a million people for five years.

YouTube/National Advisor Bureau

But the UAE's plan isn't only aimed at bringing more fresh water to the region, they hope that the iceberg itself will create a mini climate and draw rainclouds.

The United Arab Emirates is one of the most arid climates in the world and despite receiving less than four inches of rain each year, it consumes more water than double the global average.

It'll be interesting to see what happens if the project works as it could usher in a new era of stealing icebergs from the poles to service people in hotter climates.

Featured Image Credit: Euronews

Topics: Community, Weird, Australia