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ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates - As swimming pool suburbia spreads across the desert sands of the Middle East, developers and governments are wrangling with a major problem: There is almost no freshwater.
The skyrocketing costs of desalination plants, long used as the source of most water, are leading governments to look at a possible, cheaper source - the wastewater from sewage plants.
"Is it dirty? Yes. But if it's properly treated, it is valuable," said Fady Juez, managing director of Metito, a Dubai company that designs water and sewage treatment plants.
Juez was among the experts from some of the world's driest countries who gathered recently for a conference in Abu Dhabi, capital of the United Arab Emirates, to seek ways to reuse water that flows through their sewers.
Construction booms and government policies of providing free city water have pushed per capita consumption to the highest levels in the world: Water is lavished on golf courses, gardens and fountains, even as groundwater in overtaxed aquifers grows salty and unusable.
With 5 percent of global population, the Middle East has just 1 percent of the world's accessible freshwater. All Middle Eastern countries except Iraq and Syria face severe shortages in coming decades, according to presentations given at the conference.
"We are the driest part of the world," Juez said. "And we are multiplying like mad."
To compensate, gulf countries have traditionally turned to desalination, which provides some 60 percent of the region's needs. But such treatment plants are expensive and consume a lot of energy.
Supporters of using wastewater say it can be rendered pure enough for drinking - or even for Muslim ablutions, the preprayer ritual washing that requires a higher level of cleanliness.
Even if people balk at drinking or washing in treated sewage, participants said recycled wastewater could be quickly redirected toward irrigation and air conditioning, or at least reinjected into aquifers to improve groundwater.
Past efforts to convince people in the region not to waste water were frustrated by governments' insistence on giving away the precious commodity, or selling it so cheaply that customers have no idea of its value.
"At least let them know how much it costs," Juez said. "Send them a bill. Tell them "You used $150 of water this month,' even if you don't charge them."