Developing National Policy to Utilize Treated Sewage Effluent and Biosolids in Controlled Environment Agriculture in United Arab Emirates

Controlled-environment agriculture (CEA) has emerged as a viable option to improve crop production in the UAE. The country’s water resources are limited due to its arid and hyper-arid climate. The declining quality and quantity of groundwater resources is a major problem in many agricultural areas.

Against this backdrop, treated wastewater can be a sustainable alternative. But most of it is lost or dumped, leading to high economic costs and detrimental effects on the environment.

To address this problem, the project developed a national policy document on the utilization of treated sewage effluent (TSE) and biosolids in CEA for enhancing food and nutrition security in the UAE. The project also provided a comprehensive economic analysis of treated wastewater reuse in agriculture with a particular focus on CEA.

In particular the project focused on improving the safe use of treated wastewater for food production in CEA while minimizing associated risks to public health and the environment. In addition, the project sought to maximize the economic benefits of utilizing treated wastewater.

The project also analyzed and documented state-of-the-art technologies for using TSE in agriculture with a focus on CEA systems. This included evaluating cultivation practices, irrigation and cooling strategies, and best management practices for TSE use, as well as conducting a cost-benefit analysis of TSE irrigation on crop production and profitability. The project also shortlisted crops that could be grown using TSE in two types of greenhouses and conducted spatial and temporal analysis of TSE sources using GIS techniques. Two field surveys were conducted to collect data from CEA farmers.