90% of Farms in East UAE Have Water Problems

An Estimated 90 Per Cent of Farms on the UAE's East Coast Suffer Water Supply Deficiencies, According to Research from UAE University

Dr Saif Al Qaydi, dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, found that more than 26 per cent of farms in the east have gone out of business since 2000 because of limited or depleted natural resources such as water and fertile soil and through urban development.

"I believe sustainable farming is one of the main important issues for farmers in the UAE, and farmers in the east coast are among those who are in a dilemma," said Dr Al Qaydi. "They either continue working on their farm with the existing environmental issues or stop farming and convert their land to other purposes."

When soil is of limited fertility and water is in short supply, sustainable farming in the UAE becomes a major challenge.

"For many of those farmers, farming is in their blood and they cannot keep it away from their daily activities," Dr Al Qaydi said. "So some of these people are trying to challenge the UAE's environmental conditions and use technology to maintain their farming. Of course, this new technology could sometimes face other environmental problems related to soil and water shortage."

He interviewed 250 foreign and local farm owners and collected data from the Ministry of Environment and Water, as well as the National Bureau of Statistics and local municipalities.

Government records showed that the total number of farms in the UAE increased from 2,525 in 1975 to 5,528 in 2012.

"It is clear that 90 per cent of the total east coast farmers have water problems, in terms of quantity or quality of irrigation water," Dr Al Qaydi said.

Of the 5,272 wells on east coast farms, 23 per cent were either dry or the water tainted and unusable.

"This adds to the burden on existing water resources," according to the study. "Irrigation water in east coast farms is obtained from farm or home wells, desalination plants and municipality residence running water, but all these are too costly for the small amount of farm crops produced, which makes sustainable farming in the area hard to achieve."

Dr Hashem Alzaabi, who owns an east coast farm, witnessed the problem first-hand.

"We used to have a lot of water and rain so we didn't need to dig too deep to get water - maximum three to six metres," he said. "The soil was good for fruits and vegetables but it's no longer the case."

He said the water shortage started in 1982.

"A lot of farmers sold their farms to rich people from Dubai and Abu Dhabi and they had five or six deep wells," he said. "They used technology to get water so this affected its availability."

That was not an option Dr Alzaabi considered.

"The water on both my farms is very salty now," he said. "But technology will cost me more than Dh150,000 just for the water so, for now, I'm using my garden to grow fruits and vegetables."

Dr Al Qaydi said the growing demand for organic food added a burden for farmers.

Source: The National

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