AIR AND WATER QUALITY TOP NATION’S PRESSING ENVIRONMENTAL CHALLENGES

▶ Environment Agency Abu Dhabi highlights pressure on natural resources, but points to solutions for the future

Groundwater reserves have been depleted and replenishment takes place slowly, falling far short of demand for consumption

A stark assessment of the challenges facing the environment is outlined in the latest report from the Environment Agency Abu Dhabi.

The report outlines the state of the emirate’s natural resources, sets out the areas of greatest concern, and highlights the agency’s work to overcome them.

Its priorities include falling levels of groundwater, protecting air quality, fighting climate change and conserving wildlife on land and in the sea.

The issue of groundwater levels, this year’s annual report says, is “one of our most pressing challenges and greatest areas of concern”.

Laws were passed last year to protect groundwater from pollution and excessive use, which the agency calls “essential to the security, cultural heritage and environment of the UAE”.

“These reserves have been severely depleted and our prevailing climatic conditions mean that replenishment takes place extremely slowly, falling far short of the demand for consumption,” the report says.

The agency warns that in several areas, the quality of the remaining groundwater “has been tainted in places by rising levels of brackish groundwater from saline aquifers, as well as excessive use of fertilisers and discharge of brine from desalination plants, along with wastewater”.

In response, it says it has completed 99 per cent of the infrastructure for a strategic water reserve in Liwa that will use a system of recovery wells, recharge basins, pumps and tanks that can supply the entire city of Abu Dhabi and the Al Dhafra region with refreshed groundwater for 90 days.

A proposal has also been made to create another reserve in Al Shuaib that would ensure three months of supply in an emergency for Al Ain, with the possibility of extending it to the Northern Emirates.

The agency has also been successful in cutting the amount of groundwater used by forests by more than a quarter and in the next 18 months will have mapped every working groundwater well in the emirate.

“We have made significant strides in improving the irrigation efficiency of Abu Dhabi’s forests, decommissioning very low ecological and cultural value forests that are not viable,” said Razan Al Mubarak, the environment agency’s secretary general.

The agency’s report underlines the UAE and Abu Dhabi’s commitment to the 2016 Paris agreement on climate change, while outlining two widely different scenarios for the future.

Its research concludes that “emissions in 2030 could be 170 per cent higher than in 2010 if the current trend continues”, but that there is the potential to slash them by 40 per cent if key economic sectors, including energy and waste, follow policies on emissions.

The agency sees potential in expanding and protecting mangroves as a method of scrubbing carbon from the atmosphere, and says the promotion of clean-energy technology and use of low-carbon fuels mean that “Abu Dhabi has performed relatively well in comparison to other developing countries”.

The agency identifies outdoor air pollution as “the single biggest threat to the health of people and wildlife in the emirate”.

It says it is now monitoring emissions across the emirate, while creating regulatory standards for airborne pollutants including ozone, carbon monoxide and hydrogen sulfide, a by-product of treating sour gas.

Air quality, the report says, generally meets Government standards set in 2006, with the exception of ozone and particulate matter – a mixture of extremely small particles and liquid drops caused by urban pollution, which can cause serious health issues for the heart and lungs.

Its research also shows that levels of mercury, another toxic substance generated by urban waste, rose by 10 per cent between 2010 and 2012, with the possibility that it could rise 115 per cent by 2030.

At the same time, the agency says, tougher controls mean that it is targeting a reduction in mercury levels of nearly 40 per cent, and that it was the first body in the region to complete an inventory of mercury sources in response to the United Nations Environment Minamata Convention on Mercury.

Of the 23,000 tonnes of waste generated by Abu Dhabi every day in 2015, only about 1 per cent was considered hazardous.

The main sources of waste, the agency says, are industrial and commercial activities, almost matched by construction and demolition, together accounting for 73 per cent. Municipal waste accounts for only a fifth and agriculture only 6 per cent.

Better waste management, the report says, means the emirate is well on track to meet the targets in the Abu Dhabi Plan 2020, which seek drastic cuts of municipal solid waste generation to 1.5 kilograms a head each day and increase the amount of treated municipal waste to 75 per cent by 2021.