Doha: The participants in Green Tent discussed the impact of climate change on water and food security, and the necessity of integrating the roles of Arab countries, as well as the importance of adopting modern technologies to enhance the quality of water and food.
During the eighth conference of the Green Tent, the head of A Flower Each Spring programme, Dr. Saif bin Ali Al Hajri, spoke about the importance of water and food security, as an existential issue whose components contribute to making the future, and in light of the climate changes that the planet is subjected to, global warming is causing an increase in lands that are subject to drought and desertification.
Al Hajri added that the Arab region falls within the arid and semi-arid regions, which suffer from water poverty, which affects food security, and adds more burdens to the Arab plan and legislature, pointing to the need to secure Arab systems capable of providing food and ensuring the welfare of the citizen, and expanding as much as possible in securing basic materials.
For their part, the speakers in the conference confirmed that research and studies have proven the leakage of salt from land to groundwater, and this is a disaster, because groundwater will also be exposed to increased salinity, in addition to the fact that 51 percent of the cities of Arab countries are located on the coast, and with the rise in the water level due to climate changes are causing these lands to increase salinity, stressing the need to prepare well for this problem, by installing rock barriers on the coasts, placing artificial coral reefs, and planting mangroves on the coasts.
Within the framework of national initiatives to increase agricultural production, the participants in the conference announced a new biological technology based on the use of specific types of beneficial bacteria, with the aim of increasing soil fertility and reclamation of uncultivable lands due to the dry climate, as well as increasing livestock and fish wealth, and reducing the proportion of water used in irrigation,
They added that all indications of using this technology proved successful in growing vegetables in high salinity soils, achieving high production rates and a distinctive taste. Moreover, this technology helped reduce the volume of water consumption by up to 50 percent.
They pointed out that this technology also saved the use of fodder for raising livestock by 50 percent, because bacteria work in the animal’s stomach in a certain way to make the most of food, noting that the types of these bacteria are suitable for the climate in Qatar, and are present in the soil, the human body and fish as well.
Regarding the challenges facing food and water security, the speakers explained that the issue of food security for any society is a central and strategic issue, considering food as one of the basic and necessary needs of every human being, and it must be met in appropriate and stable quantities in an easy and accessible manner.
They noted that food security in the Arab countries is affected by a number of main factors, including fluctuations in commodity prices, climate change, population increase, declining rain water levels, the absence of permanent rivers and the dependence of some Arab countries on rivers that do not originate from their lands, which threatens their water interests.
