04/09/2013
In a specialized workshop on desertification
The Chamber calls for preserving groundwater and prevent overgrazing and oppressive firewood
(Desertification causes and consequences workshop) organized by the Chamber, represented by the Environment Committee on Wednesday (4/9/2013) confirmed the importance of maintaining agricultural and aquatic environment in all regions of the Kingdom, and what is required to maintain soil ,ground water and wind resistant crawls, beside preventing logging and overgrazing. The workshop was chaired by the Vice-Chairman of the environment Committee Talal Alrashed; he stressed on the importance of preserving the environment and desertification control, explaining that a clean environment that attracts investment, and raise the pace of some economic activities such as tourism, for example. Alrasheed called to join efforts on a better environment, and the reduction of the phenomenon of desertification which is candidates for further growth and expansion.
During the workshop, which was attended by a number of experts and specialists in the environment, there was a display for four worksheets, the engineer Hussain Al Basri from (Al-Ahsa National Ministry of agriculture) presented working paper entitled (reserving sand in Alhsaa objectives and results draft), in which he said that the Kingdom is generally and Alahsaa specifically is threatened by the sand crawling. The Ministry of Agriculture in 1382 started a sand project located northeast of Al-Ahsa along the 20 km and width of 250-750 m, he said that the danger of sand has reduced farmland in Alahsaa to 8,000 ha, stressing that six hundred years is enough to eliminate the oaisis unless addressing the phenomenon.
Engineer Fahad Bin Abdul Mohsen Al-Husseini from JDT has submitted a working paper entitled (desertification in Saudi Arabia) where he gave a definition of desertification: increased size of the desert at the expense of farmland and forest areas, grasslands, and partial or total deterioration of biological energy of the soil in a certain area, leading ultimately to desert conditions in that region. Also he recommended update for desertification and its implementation in coordination with the various stakeholders and supported by appropriate financial and human resources, and national commitment to combat desertification through the participation of all groups in society, and the establishment of programs to teach appropriate methods of agriculture and pastoralism in the extremely dry desert areas, and awareness campaigns for the general community, and seed banks to maintain Kingdom genetic plant to utilize them in the rehabilitation process of decertified areas, and a tight on natural reserves, reduce giving permits to enter protected areas ,and putting a limit of owning cattle and camels in Saudi Arabia
Under the heading (desertification -grazing, woodland), the Director of the Division of forestry Fahad Bin Ghazi Al-Harbi said that the problem of desertification is one of the most important global problems affecting the ecosystem of our globe, a third of the territory of the planet that sustains for us elements of life remain vulnerable to desertification as a degraded area nearly 4 billion hectares and an acceleration of about 50 billion hectares per year estimated loss from the decline by around 42 billion dollars a year. The approximately 250 million people affected by drought and desertification, in addition there are around one billion people in more than 150 countries are at risk of desertification. He noted that approximately 90% of the Arab lands of 14.3 million km2 falls under climatic conditions dry and semi-dry or very dry, and the decertified Arab land is about 9.76 million km2 and is about 68 of the total area, while areas threatened by desertification 2.87 million km 2 which is 20% of the total area of the Arab land.
He said that the contribution of natural pastures is no longer met over 20, 3% of the nutritional needs of domesticated animals in the Kingdom and the remaining is covered by imported food (53, 6%) and Agriculture (14.4%) and irrigated fodder crops (11.6%) and he stressedthat bothovergrazing andloggingleads todesertification,because bad grazingcontributes to theremoval ofvegetation,and the disintegration ofthe soil,and the lack ofmoisture,which result to wind driftingandwater drifting, whiletimber cuttingleads to theoccurrence oferosion,air, water andsoil lossand decliningfertility,and produces encroachmentand the threat ofinstallations,increasesthe incidence offloodsthat causehuman lossesandeconomiclosses,andcausesadecreaseinthe amount of waterthat feed the groundwater.
Alharbi finds that both factors lead to the deterioration of the human environment and livelihoods, and causing a high proportion of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere leading to climate change, and increase the intensity and frequency of drought.
Dr. Abdulaziz Al-shaibani (head of the Department of Earth Sciences-King Fahd University of petroleum and minerals) has talked about (the impact of low water levels and pollution to desertification) he said that water resources in the Kingdom (surface water and desalinated seawater, wastewater treatment, groundwater) indicating that groundwater is a major source of drinking water in many regions, representing 80 of all water used for all purposes in a number of regions of the Kingdom. He said water shortage (imbalance between available resources and water demand) causes a lasting negative effect on the soil, as well as the contamination of groundwater leads to soil salinization and erosion of vegetation (natural and agricultural), both leading to the vastness of desertification and he believed that the solution to this problem is to reduce the depletion of non-renewable water reserves and the protection of groundwater against pollution (legislation, awareness-raising) and using modern methods of agriculture and irrigation (for sustainability of natural resources), and integrated management (sustainable) resource Water and soil, and cultivation of crops with low water requirements.
