Part II of a research report released today by The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) highlights a range of measures supporting the sustainable development of the ocean economy that is being taken across the Indian Ocean region.
The white paper Charting the course for ocean sustainability in the Indian Ocean Rim, sponsored by the Environment Agency – Abu Dhabi (EAD) and the Department of Economic Development Abu Dhabi, outlines key ocean challenges facing the Indian Ocean Rim countries and reviews initiatives undertaken by governments and the private sector in the region to address these challenges.
The second part of the research offers in-depth insight into five key issues – the degradation of the marine ecosystem, plastic pollution, unsustainable fishing, extraction of non-renewable marine resources and rising water salinity from desalination.
UAE project as a leading case study
The report includes a UAE case study that presents a solution to rising water salinity from desalination. Global desalination capacity is estimated at 90 million cubic metres of water per day. In the Indian Ocean region, the UAE leads other nations with a capacity of over seven million cubic metres per day.
A growing desalination market brings certain environmental concerns to the fore. Concentrated brine left over as a result of the desalination process is often discharged into the ocean. This can contribute to increased salinity of the waters surrounding the desalination plants, adversely impacting marine life and habitats.
There are two main approaches to reducing water salinity from desalination – one is to manage brine discharge and the other is to repurpose brine discharge on land. The UAE case study focuses on the latter. Experiments are underway to repurpose reject brine from desalination for agriculture as part of a modular farming project in the UAE, led by the International Center for Biosaline Agriculture (ICBA), an international agricultural research organisation.
Consisting of various components that use by-products of other industries or each other, modular farms reflect the growing circular economy mindset in the food and agricultural sectors. Through combining the components, modular farms use marginal land to provide protein and other nutrients with better water efficiency. The aim is to develop a saltwater-based agricultural system in which farmers can irrigate salt-tolerant crops with low-quality water in a sustainable and economical manner.
One component of ICBA’s farm utilises reject brine in fish farming. The wastewater from the fish farm is then used to grow halophytes (salt-tolerant plants) with and without soil in a process known as aquaponics.