O’Connell
Don’t ignore food security
Qatar is one country that got a sharp lesson in food security in July 2017. The gas-rich state was suddenly hit with a complete blockade by its neighboring countries in a political dispute that has yet to be resolved. The impact was instantaneous as the country had to completely rework its food supply chain and develop some agricultural capacity.
To address the immediate problem of dairy shortages, the country built a massive air-conditioned dairy farm, bought 5,000 cows from New Zealand and flew them to Qatar – a short-term necessity, but one that can only be viable in the long term if water is sustainably sourced.
In 2013, Qatar’s government put forward the Global Dryland Alliance initiative at the 68th UN General Assembly. Its goal is to “make dryland countries food secure” by developing “sustainable and integrated strategies for agriculture, water use, food imports and reserves, and food access” that are “based on innovative scientific and technological research and utilization as well as targeted investments in development.”
Prior to the blockade the Qatar Foundation invested heavily in education and research and began awarding research grants to fund plant genetic research. The first breakthrough was made by the Qatar campus of Weill Cornell Medicine, which developed an AI tool to improve yields of date palms, ensuring better and more sustainable production.
Do consider less thirsty strains
“Developing a strain of cotton that is less ‘thirsty’ has been one of my goals for years,” says Dr. Mamdouh Omar, a plant geneticist and professor of agriculture at Cairo University.
The construction of the Aswan Dam in Egypt stopped the annual flooding of the Nile but, in turn, devastated the cotton crop that thrived when the river broke its banks annually and flooded the fields. With the end of free and natural irrigation, the country began to exploit its aquifer for irrigation.
In Arizona, the average irrigation requirement for cotton is estimated to be 260,000 gallons per acre. Due to inefficiencies, Egypt uses three times more water to grow its cotton. Now the wells are running dry.
“Water saving technologies are truly the need of the hour, not only to help farmers become more sustainable but to also stabilize the collapse of aquifers,” says Aadith Moorthy, the founder of ConserWater Technologies, a California-based company that uses AI to analyze NASA imagery to reduce irrigation.
While savings will not be as substantial in more efficient Arizona as they are in Egypt, the technology could still help cut water consumption.
Don’t let rainwater go to waste
Tucson may consider itself a pioneer in rainwater harvesting — since 2012, the city has offered rebates to homeowners to subsidize installation of catchment systems and loans for lowincome households – but it has been a way of life in the Caribbean for centuries.
Many islands, including the Turks and Caicos, and the Grenadines, rely solely on rainwater. Even in the U.S. Virgin Islands, rainwater capture is mandatory in the building code. These islands may get more rainfall than Arizona, but they also have limited reserves of usable water, making capture vital.
“Every residential project has cisterns designed into the house,” says Kevin Qualls from Springline Architects on the island of St. Thomas. “They are usually located below the living level, like a basement that you plan to fill with water.”
According to calculations by Texas A&M University, an average size roof of 2,000 square feet can collect 9,600 gallons of rainwater in Arizona, where it rains, on average, 8 inches a year. That is more than enough water to run an average washing machine and a dishwasher every day.
More cities should take a leaf out of Tucson’s book. In a state where water is scarce, every drop counts. Unless Arizona does more to save water, livelihoods of countless farmers will be threatened, and the state may find it more and more difficult to sustain communities when the wells dry up.