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Interview of Zafar Adeel and Richard Thomas (UNU-INWEH) on Arid Regions
28 November, 2008
Zafar Adeel, a co-author and director of the UNU International Network on Water, Environment and Health (INWEH), gave a telephone interview for Reuters commenting a new UN report on arid regions in developing countries.
He stressed that agriculture takes up to 70 to 90 percent of freshwater supply in drylands. The UN's Climate Panel predicts that global warming will strain water supplies and cause deserts to spread. As a counter-measure a report proposes the idea shifting to less water-intensive farming and establishing new businesses. Zafar Adeel stressed that in these regions it will be necessary to "think outside the box, look at options".
Richard Thomas, deputy head of INWEH, thinks that it would be much better to farm on the grasslands chicken meat, not cattle meat.
The UN report proposes to use ecotourism, solar energy, and fish farms in arid regions suffering from scarce supplies of water. The report stresses that these developments can create new jobs in these regions.
Zafar Adeel cited example of a project in Tunisia on development of the ecotourism on the outskirts of the Sahara desert. In Jordan they produce ¨dryland soaps¨ out of olive oil and fragrances from pomegranate, lavender, geranium and mint. In Egypt they use solar panels to power a desalination plant delivering drinking water from underground sources. Manufacturing of solar-powered desalination units was started for use in other places, such as coastal areas where salty water from the Mediterranean often makes its way into groundwater.
Adeel said the examples were intended to counter pessimism about desertification blamed on global warming.
Similar projects will be launched in India, Bolivia and Burkina Faso in the beginning of 2009.
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