Water security is, probably, the prime grand challenge in the country that needs to be tackled at the top of other grand challenges, opined an official of Qatar Foundation Research and Development (QF R&D).

“Water security is the key challenge that is being addressed at the Annual Research Conference 2016," Dr Nabeel al-Salem, executive director, Outreach and Communications at QF R&D told Gulf Times.

"We have a number of abstracts and posters on the issue of water security and ways to make use of the water resources. Many researches are going on in this field.”

“This has already been recognised as a major grand challenge. I feel that it is the prime challenge for the country and the region. We are all working towards solving this issue,” he continued.

“It is a multi-sector challenge and everyone has to come together to meet the challenge. The universities, researchers and other stakeholders have to come together to find a solution for this problem. Many researchers are working on the challenges,” he maintained.

The official noted that Qatar National Research Fund is providing more support and funding on researches on tackling the challenges of water security. “We are trying to approach this challenge from different aspects and solve the issue effectively. A lot has been achieved. But what we have achieved so far, are only a few steps in a long journey,” stressed Dr al- Salem.

He also pointed out that several researches are going on in the solar energy sector to find out the most suitable technology for Qatar.

“We are testing several types of solar technologies and the solar test facility is the test bed for various technologies. A lot of data is being collected and we have a lot of researchers working on the facility. We have the dust problem in the country and we are working on how to overcome this issue. We are also trying to improve the efficiency of the photovoltaic panels,” he added.