Fahad Al-Attiya: A country with no water

Translator: Timothy Covell Reviewer: Morton Bast

翻译人员: 文进 肖 校对人员: Wei Wu

Salaam alaikum.

祝你平安！（阿拉伯常见的问候语）

Welcome to Doha.

多哈欢迎你。

I am in charge of making this country's food secure.

我负责确保卡塔尔的食品保障。

That is my job for the next two years,

在接下来的两年时间里，

to design an entire master plan,

我的工作是设计一个完整的总体规划，

and then for the next 10 years to implement it --

然后在接下来的 10 年里实施这个规划——

of course, with so many other people.

当然，是和很多人共同实施。

But first, I need to talk to you about a story, which is my story,

首先，我想讲一个我的故事，

about the story of this country that you're all here in today.

这个故事是关于在座各位脚下的这个国家（卡塔尔）。

And of course, most of you have had three meals today,

相信诸位今天都已进三餐，

and probably will continue to have after this event.

或许会在活动后再吃点夜宵。

So going in, what was Qatar in the 1940s?

那好，上个世纪四十年代的卡塔尔是什么样的呢？

We were about 11,000 people living here.

那时这里有大约一万一千名居民。

There was no water. There was no energy, no oil, no cars, none of that.

这里没饮用水、没能源、没石油、没有汽车，什么也没有。

Most of the people who lived here

大多数住在这里的人

either lived in coastal villages, fishing,

要么住在沿海村庄，靠打渔为生，

or were nomads who roamed around with the environment trying to find water.

要么过着游牧人的生活，四处飘游寻找水源。

None of the glamour that you see today existed.

根本不像你今天所见到的这般辉煌。

No cities like you see today in Doha or Dubai or Abu Dhabi or Kuwait or Riyadh.

那时也没有像多哈、迪拜、阿布扎比、科威特或利雅得这样的城市。

It wasn't that they couldn't develop cities.

不是人们不能发展城市，

Resources weren't there to develop them.

而是匮乏的资源不允许城市的发展。

And you can see that life expectancy was also short.

那时人们的寿命也短。

Most people died around the age of 50.

大多数人在 50 岁左右就过世了。

So let's move to chapter two: the oil era.

让我们翻开第二章：石油时代。

1939, that's when they discovered oil.

1939 年，人们发现了石油。

But unfortunately, it wasn't really fully exploited commercially

只可惜，直到二战结束后

until after the Second World War.

石油才得到大规模的商业开采。

What did it do?

石油到底发挥了什么作用？

It changed the face of this country, as you can see today and witness.

正如你亲眼所见，它改变了这个国家的面貌。

It also made all those people who roamed around the desert --

它也使得那些一度在沙漠中游荡、

looking for water, looking for food,

四处寻找水和食物、

trying to take care of their livestock -- urbanize.

设法养活他们牲畜的游牧人走上了城市化的发展道路。

You might find this strange,

也许你会感到奇怪，

but in my family we have different accents.

我的家人有不同的口音。

My mother has an accent that is so different to my father,

比如我父母的口音截然不同，

and we're all a population of about 300,000 people in the same country.

尽管我们都是这个约有 30 万人口的国家的子民。

There are about five or six accents in this country as I speak.

这个国家有大概五六种不同的口音——这些口音我都会讲。

Someone says, "How so? How could this happen?"

有人问：“这是怎么回事？”

Because we lived scattered.

因为我们过去过着散居的生活。

We couldn't live in a concentrated way simply because there was no resources.

因为没有资源，我们没办法集中地生活。

And when the resources came, be it oil,

而有了石油资源以后，

we started building these fancy technologies

我们开始发展先进科技

and bringing people together because we needed the concentration.

将人们集中起来，因为我们需要集中。

People started to get to know each other.

人们开始相互认识。

And we realized that there are some differences in accents.

于是我们发现，原来大家的口音都不一样。

So that is the chapter two: the oil era.

以上就是第二章：石油时代。

Let's look at today.

再来看看今天。

This is probably the skyline that most of you know about Doha.

这可能是今天大多数人所知道的多哈风貌。

So what's the population today?

如今的人口有多少呢？

It's 1.7 million people.

大约一百七十万。

That is in less than 60 years.

时间仅仅过去不到 60 年。

The average growth of our economy is about 15 percent for the past five years.

在过去的 5 年里，我们的经济平均增长了约15%。

Lifespan has increased to 78.

人均寿命也提高到 78 岁。

Water consumption has increased to 430 liters.

人均用水量达到四百三十升，

And this is amongst the highest worldwide.

列居世界用水之最。

From having no water whatsoever

从水资源匮乏

to consuming water to the highest degree, higher than any other nation.

到世界顶级用水国。

I don't know if this was a reaction to lack of water.

我不知道是不是“物极必反”的原因在作怪。

But what is interesting about the story that I've just said?

这个故事里有意思的是：

The interesting part is that we continue to grow

我们的经济还在继续增长——

15 percent every year for the past five years without water.

在没有淡水的情况下，过去的 5 年里，每年经济增长15%。

Now that is historic. It's never happened before in history.

这是史无前例的，或者说我们创造了历史。

Cities were totally wiped out because of the lack of water.

城市由于缺水而荡然无存。

This is history being made in this region.

这是这一地域从前的历史。

Not only cities that we're building,

与其说我们的前辈曾在建造城市，

but cities with dreams and people who are wishing to be scientists, doctors.

倒不如说他们曾在编织梦想。他们不仅梦想着建造城市， 也梦想着成为科学家和医生。

Build a nice home, bring the architect, design my house.

建造美丽的家园，找来设计师设计自己的房子。

These people are adamant that this is a livable space when it wasn't.

这些人坚信这片贫瘠的土地是生机勃勃的。

But of course, with the use of technology.

当然，没有科技的支撑，这也只能是梦想。

So Brazil has 1,782 millimeters per year of precipitation of rain.

巴西每年有 1782 毫米的降雨量

Qatar has 74, and we have that growth rate.

卡塔尔却仅有 74 毫米，但我们的城市发展速度飞快。

The question is how.

问题是，

How could we survive that?

我们如何在极度缺水的情况下

We have no water whatsoever.

维持高速发展。

Simply because of this gigantic, mammoth machine called desalination.

答案很简单，我们有这些庞大的海水淡化装置。

Energy is the key factor here. It changed everything.

能源是关键因素，它改变了一切。

It is that thing that we pump out of the ground, we burn tons of,

它就是我们从地下抽出并大量使用的石油，

probably most of you used it coming to Doha.

在座各位能到多哈，可能就是靠它的功劳。

So that is our lake, if you can see it.

因此，石油就像我们的无形的湖泊。

That is our river.

它就像我们的河流。

That is how you all happen to use and enjoy water.

多亏了它，大家才能有幸用上淡水。

This is the best technology that this region could ever have: desalination.

这是这一地区有史以来最伟大的科技：海水淡化技术。

So what are the risks?

那么有没有风险呢？

Do you worry much?

您有担心过吗？

I would say, perhaps if you look at the global facts,

我想说，当我们放眼全球，

you will realize, of course I have to worry.

您就会意识到，我的担心并不多余。

There is growing demand, growing population.

人口日益增长，对石油的需求也随之增加。

We've turned seven billion only a few months ago.

就在几个月前，全球人口已经突破了 70 亿。

And so that number also demands food.

随之而来的是对食物需求的增长。

And there's predictions that we'll be nine billion by 2050.

有预言说到 2050 年全球人口将达到 90 亿。

So a country that has no water

像我们这样缺水的国家

has to worry about what happens beyond its borders.

不得不担心全球的事态发展。

There's also changing diets.

饮食习惯也在改变。

By elevating to a higher socio-economic level,

随着社会经济水平上升到新的高度，

they also change their diet.

人们的饮食习惯也在改变。

They start eating more meat and so on and so forth.

人们开始食用更多的肉，等等等等。

On the other hand, there is declining yields

另一方面，粮食产量正在下降

because of climate change and because of other factors.

因为气候变化和其它因素。

And so someone has to really realize when the crisis is going to happen.

当危机即将发生的时候，总得有人能够真正察觉。

This is the situation in Qatar, for those who don't know.

卡塔尔不为人知的情况是，

We only have two days of water reserve.

我们仅有两天的淡水储备。

We import 90 percent of our food,

我们90%的粮食是进口的，

and we only cultivate less than one percent of our land.

我们仅有不到国土面积1%的耕地。

The limited number of farmers that we have

我们人数有限的农民

have been pushed out of their farming practices

都被迫抛弃他们的农作

as a result of open market policy and bringing the big competitions, etc., etc.

由于开放的市场政策和强大的竞争等等原因。

So we also face risks.

因此我们也面临风险。

These risks directly affect the sustainability of this nation and its continuity.

这些风险直接影响着这个国家的可持续性和延续性。

The question is, is there a solution?

但是有没有解决办法呢？

Is there a sustainable solution?

有没有可持续性的办法？

Indeed there is.

其实是有的。

This slide sums up thousands of pages of technical documents

这张幻灯片总结了数千页技术文档

that we've been working on over the past two years.

都是我们过去两年的工作成果。

Let's start with the water.

让我们从水说起。

So we know very well -- I showed you earlier -- that we need this energy.

大家很清楚——正如我刚才所说——我们需要这种能源。

So if we're going to need energy, what sort of energy?

那么我们到底需要哪种能源呢？

A depletable energy? Fossil fuel?

一种耗竭性能源？化石燃料？

Or should we use something else?

或许我们可以用其它能源？

Do we have the comparative advantage to use another sort of energy?

我们有没有相对优势去用另一种能源?

I guess most of you by now realize that we do: 300 days of sun.

我猜大多数人都会想到：我们每年有 300 天的充足日照。

And so we will use that renewable energy to produce the water that we need.

因而，我们将使用这种可再生能源来生产我们需要的淡水。

And we will probably put 1,800 megawatts of solar systems

而且我们可能会配备1800兆瓦的太阳能系统

to produce 3.5 million cubic meters of water.

去生产 350 万立方米的淡水。

And that is a lot of water.

这可是大量的淡水呀。

That water will go then to the farmers,

这些水会被农民所用，

and the farmers will be able to water their plants,

农民会有充足的水灌溉作物，

and they will be able then to supply society with food.

进而为社会提供食物。

But in order to sustain the horizontal line --

但为了维持图示中的水平线——

because these are the projects, these are the systems that we will deliver --

因为这些是我们要交付的项目和系统——

we need to also develop the vertical line:

我们也需要发展那条垂直线：

system sustenance, high-level education, research and development,

系统支持、高等教育、研究与发展、

industries, technologies, to produce these technologies for application, and finally markets.

工业、科技，以研制出这些应用技术，最终投放市场。

But what gels all of it, what enables it, is legislation, policies, regulations.

但是凝结和推进这些做法的是：立法、政策和制度。

Without it we can't do anything.

没有这些，一切都是空谈。

So that's what we are planning to do.

这就是我们规划要做的事。

Within two years we should hopefully be done with this plan

在接下来的两年中，我们有希望完成这一规划

and taking it to implementation.

并落实这一规划。

Our objective is to be a millennium city, just like many millennium cities around:

我们的目标是建立一个千年之城，就像我们周围许多的千年之城：

Istanbul, Rome, London, Paris, Damascus, Cairo.

伊斯坦布尔、罗马、伦敦、巴黎、大马士革、开罗。

We are only 60 years old, but we want to live forever

我们虽仅有 60 年的历史，但我们渴望永生

as a city, to live in peace.

一城之中，和平相处。

Thank you very much.

谢谢！

(Applause)

（掌声）