‘30 pc of farmlands exposed to desertification’

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5-fold water consumption rate observed in Arab world

KUWAIT CITY, Nov 30: Executive Director of the Center for Water Researches at Kuwait Institute of Scientific Research (KISR) Dr Mohammad Al-Rashid stated 30 percent of farmlands in the Arab world are exposed to desertification, considering five-fold water consumption rate observed within the past 50 years, reports Al-Qabas daily.

Al-Rashid made the disclosure in a recent speech delivered on behalf of KISR Director General Dr Samira Al-Seyyid Omar at the inauguration of a regional workshop on “Management of Municipality Sewage Water Plants in Arab Countries”. He quantified annual water consumption in Arab countries to be around 230 billion cubic meters, of which 43 billion cubic meters is for drinking and industrial purposes, while 187 billion cubic meters is for agriculture.

He stressed the situation calls for a search into non conventional sources such as recycling treated sewage water for agricultural and industrial activities. He also revealed the Arab world is classified as poor in terms of drinking water resources, because it has less than 1 percent of surface water and about 2 percent of the total rain water in the world.

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