Nanotechnology, Food Security and Water Treatment

Abstract

Food security and Water 1 This White Paper articulates the principles of the UAE in its approach to food and water security and outlines the key positions it is seeking to promote within the context of the G-20 process this year. The document begins by explaining why food and water security are particularly important to the UAE and the region before exploring their growing status as critical issues on the international agenda. It then summarizes the key items relating to food and water on the G-20 agenda and describes the ways in which the UAE will seek to work constructively within that framework to help develop practical solutions to these emerging challenges. Specifically, the UAE believes that food and water security must be treated as highly interdependent policy outcomes as sustainable use of water resources is an essential pre-requisite for long term food security initiatives to be successful. " Food and water security are key priorities for the UAE both domestically and internationally and represent a major area of interest for the UAE on the G-20 agenda. 2 Food Security and Water: The Domestic Context Food Security and Water: The International Context In a twist of geological fate, the abundance of the UAE's energy reserves have been counter balanced by the scarcity of its water resources. With little natural freshwater, the UAE's domestic agricultural capacity -and therefore food production capabilities -are severely restrained. For the UAE, water usage is costly and potential shortages are a serious concern for the future. In fact, few nations and no other region experience water scarcity to such a degree. While the Middle East has five percent of the world's population, it has less than one percent of the world's renewable freshwater resources. On current trends, the situation is expected to get worse. Water availability in the region is estimated to fall by half by 2050 having reached absolute water scarcity by 2025, resulting in potentially acute shortages. The UAE is relies on water desalination for a significant amount of its freshwater needs. Water desalination is expensive and requires significant energy inputs. The UAE's desalination plants rely exclusively on fossil fuels to make freshwater, the largest contributing factor to the country's carbon footprint. By 2030, even with advances in technology, water desalination will consume at least 20 percent of the country's overall energy demand. Without water security there can be no food security. The UAE already imports more than 85 percent of its food requirements meaning that disruptions to food supply or policy changes by other countries can affect the UAE. Expanding domestic food production is difficult due to the lack of local water supplies and their cost. Ensuring that the supply of these most basic of human requirements can be sustained is absolutely vital to the UAE's and the region's ongoing human, social and economic development.