Bahraini authorities are working on a futuristic project that would make rainwater fit to drink, a report said.

It involves injecting rainfall into the earth to replenish the water table, which could then be tapped in the same way that Bahrain's historic springs were used in the past as a source of fresh water, according to the report published in our sister newspaper the Gulf Daily News.

Tests have so far proven unsuccessful, but Works Minister Essam Khalaf told MPs yesterday that latest experiments had produced positive results.

"The Public Commission for the Protection of Marine Resources, Environment and Wildlife has been on our backs, telling us that rainwater is unfit for human consumption," said Khalaf as he appeared in parliament yesterday (December 18).

"For that we have intensified our tests to come up with solutions to purity. We may have failed, but the most recent test shows that we are on the right track.

"We have problems draining rainwater in certain areas far from the sea, like Isa Town, which see most of the flooding problems - and they are the areas we have selected to work on, whether with ground injections or setting up collection chambers."

He explained that rainwater was not fit for consumption, since it is contaminated by harmful substances both in the air and on the ground. – TradeArabia News Service