Biosaline Research Center

Faced with these grim realities, countries in the Arab world are planning and implementing various schemes in an attempt to alleviate the impending crises of water paucity and water quality deterioration - from 'mining' subterranean water reserves and reusing wastewater to rethinking agriculture policies (since 90% water withdrawals are channeled into agriculture).

In an ambitious water transportation scheme - the 'great man-made river project' - Libya plans to lay down a huge network of pipelines (each pipe being 4 metres in diameter) that will carry water, across 4000 km from deep underground aquifers in the Sahara, to the coastal plain for irrigation and industry. Jordan may follow in Libya's footsteps, drawing water from an aquifer in the southern part of the country and pumping it 300km to the capital, Amman. Both countries will be 'mining' (withdrawing without replenishing) 'fossil' waters (accumulated in subterranean reservoirs tens of thousands of years ago) that are nonrenewable on a human time scale and, therefore not sustainable in the long run.

Water trading is another option. Jordan is exploring the possibility of purchasing

Experimental pots of salt-tolerant plants at the BAC... imporant measure (Click to view larger picture)

water from Turkey, one of the region's 'water towers' where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers originate.

Desalination accounts for the bulk of the water requirements in Saudi Arabia, UAE and Kuwait, which are the largest users of desalinated water (80%) in the Arab world. Another non-conventional (and cheaper) source is reusing wastewater, adopted in Syria, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, with Syria alone accounting for almost a third of the total.

Since agricultural products are huge consumers of water, Saudi Arabia has started purchasing 'virtual water' by importing key water-intensive crops such as wheat (the country used to be a wheat producer in the 1970s and '80s). To produce an average tonne of wheat, it is estimated, requires water input roughly a thousand times that volume. In the Gulf, several subsidised programmes for agricultural self-sufficiency have been abandoned when measured against the cheaper cost of food imports. Saudi, for instance, has become a net importer of agricultural products.

The choice of crops grown is being reviewed. High water consuming crops such as oranges and tomatoes (Jordan is a case in point) are giving way to premium cash crops like artichokes that need much less water and fetch higher prices in European markets.

The Biosaline Agriculture Center at Al Ruwayyah near Dubai... trying out new ideas (Click to view larger picture)

A significant regional initiative is being taken in the UAE - using saline water to grow crops. Freshwater reserves are small and fast running out. Brackish, saline and seawaters are, on the other hand plentiful, and it is these that the Dubai-based Biosaline Agriculture Center (BAC) will tap for research on salt-tolerant agriculture crops and plants for 'greening' the desert. Not only that, it will also strive to bring into productive use the millions of hectares of salt-affected land, hitherto unutilised, to boost food output. Dr. Mohammad Al-Attar, BAC director general, looks at the Centre's role optimistically. "Salt water (use), plus sabkhas (salt pans) yielding useful food produce, plus profit. That would be perfect. And if we can sustain these, that would make it out of this world!"

Housed on a 100 ha plot at Al Ruwayyah, 23 km south of Dubai, BAC is an applied research centre, the only one in the world to specialise in biosaline agriculture. It will conduct programmes in salinity ranges from moderate to extreme (2,000 to above 15,000 parts per million p.p.m). Paul J. H. Neate, communications specialist, BAC puts these salinity ranges in perspective. "You only begin to start tasting the salt at a 2,000 p.p.m. salinity level, and not below this. Sea water may have salinity of 35,000 p.p.m, whereas under some sabkhas water is hypersaline reaching 100,000 p.p.m - so high, it burns the skin. Water at this salinity level cannot be used at all."

BAC has advantages. It is located on two aquifers (salinity 6,000 and 25,000 p.p.m) and has an irrigation system that allows scientists to mix water of different salinities and apply these at precise rates to evaluate their impact.

Almost all of the existing 'sweet' groundwater resources are pumped up for agriculture and 'greening' projects. Back in 1990, the UAE's annual water consumption for farming was calculated as a startling 800 million cubic metres (and if projections are accurate, it is 1.2 billion cu m now. These figures may not include landscaping and 'greening' water usage, and so, are likely to be understated). A substantial quantity was consumed by forage crops that account for over half the irrigated agriculture in the country, and go to feed domestic livestock, the population of which has increased fourfold since 1980. And forage grasses are huge consumers of water. Take Rhodes grass for instance. Each hectare uses up 48, 000 cubic metres per year.

Experimental pots of salt-tolerant plants at the BAC (Click to view larger picture)

Other reasons for such excessive water use by farm operators are sheer carelessness, indifference, or the absence of labour skills. Pumps operate hour after hour after hour as a result of which forages that may need just 2000-3000 cu m per ha per year, are drenched with as much as 24,000 -30,000 cu m. What is more, massive doses of fertiliser make the soil progressively salty and this, apart from making land unproductive in the long run, requires using even greater quantities of water at shorter intervals in an attempt to flush out the salts.

BLE>Freshwater aquifers are either drying up (the prevailing drought has effectively eliminated all chances of replenishment), or (particularly in the coastal areas) are suffering saline water intrusion. It makes perfect sense, therefore, that BAC's initial focus is on developing sustainable agricultural systems that use saline water to grow forage and greening plants. Primarily they will address the irrigation needs of GCC countries and other parts of the Islamic world, "However," elaborates Dr. Al-Attar, "the technologies we develop will be of value globally wherever farmers face problems of saline soils or irrigation with salty water." If salt water can meet irrigation requirements of fodder that sustains the huge (and growing) livestock population (over 1.7 million in the UAE alone) it would ease enormous pressure on the dwindling freshwater reserves. BAC will then move on to salt-tolerant 'greening' and ornamental plants and food crops.

Dr. Mohammad H. Al-Attar, director-general, BAC... optimistic about the centre's role (Click to view larger picture)

Wild forage grasses and shrubs have all but completely disappeared and most have to be grown. How did this come to pass? Dr. Al-Attar traces the background. The Bedouins were nomads. Over thousands of years they roamed the arid expanses with their herds, following the desert plants through the seasons across the Arabian Peninsula. Then nations were formed, and borders divided nomads (and animals) into separate groups. No longer could they wander over vast lands. Instead they were restricted to specific geographic locations and, as was inevitable, grazing pressures on the limited parcels of land mounted. Since then, there has been no turning back - livestock herds have grown, natural pastures have been over-grazed, human interventions in the desert (such as motor vehicles) have destroyed vegetation loosening and removing soil, and accelerating sand movement to submerge plants…the list of plant destroying activities seems endless. With natural forage on its way out, herders must buy cultivated fodder and those who cannot afford to, leave their animals to graze the last vestige of wild grass. The fact that there are no grazing regulations is the last straw!

It is to ease pressures on the dwindling vegetation cover and freshwater resources that the BAC is trying to select those plants that can grow well in saline conditions both by taking up original research and building on success stories from around the world. Scientists will work with traditional farming methods and tap the indigenous knowledge of Bedouins and other local communities because " they know best."

So which plant(s) will play 'green angel'? Will it be the native 'salt bush' that the camels love, or the Omani variety of alfalfa? Barley or Rhodes grass? Maybe all. A crop of barley irrigated with salt water has recently been harvested at BAC.

WHAT ON EARTH CAN WE DO? More about being a 'less paper' establishment. Buy and use recycled paper and lighter weight paper. Or whenever the opportunity arises, paper from nonwood fibres such as agricultural waste or discarded clothing.

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