In January 2016, Water. Desalination + reuse (Faversham House) reported a businessman's proposal, not a project, to bring water to the United Arab Emirates by pipeline from Pakistan instead of desalination. Abdulla Al Shehi, head of car wash chain Geowash, suggested a buried line of about 500 km from the Dasht river to Fujairah, using flood water otherwise lost to the sea. Masdar chief Ahmad Belhoul welcomed new ideas. Water specialist Hussein Amery saw political obstacles and noted that farming used around 70% of the country's water.
The report showed that, alongside desalination, long-distance pipelines were being raised as a water source in the Emirates at the time, with specialists pointing to political dependencies and the heavy water demand of farming.