Having lived in the Gulf Countries - I feel that they were ahead of the curve for some time when it came to water. When I lived in Dubai water was really expen

Having lived in the Gulf Countries - I feel that they were ahead of the curve for some time when it came to water. When I lived in Dubai water was really expensive compared to the UK. You also never drank from the tap but bottled water. Even the culture adopted to it where people would think you were super posh if you took showers longer than 10 minutes. Also they has some interesting techniques for desalination. For example I used to live near an aluminium smelter. Apparently the heat generated due to smelting was recycled to desalinate sea water to produce water and was sold to consumers.