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For fresh water in earlier days people depended on a few artisan wells and on rainwater collected from the roofs of houses or from cisterns at ground level. Dhows manned by Kuwaiti seamen also brought fresh water from the Shatt-Al Arab near Basra, Iraq. With the rapid growth of population, however, the government of Kuwait built desalination plants at Kuwait city, Shuaibah, and several other locations. Sources of fresh water are discovered at Rawdatain and Shaqaya, but desalination still provides the great majority of Kuwait's daily consumption of potable water. Most areas of Kuwait have mains water supply, though in a few places water is still delivered by water tankers to tanks on the roof. The expansion of electric facilities also has been remarkable. Production is concentrated in several natural-gas-fired power stations, including one at Shuwaikh and another at Al Shuaibah. A new network of underground concrete pipeline replaced the stagnating old Asbestos pipeline system all over Kuwait owing thanks to Sheikha Amthal AlSabah who initiated such a project. |