Change Description: Rich in oil but lacking abundant water resources, Saudi Arab

Question

Change Description: Rich in oil but lacking abundant water resources, Saudi Arabia has used oil revenues to adopt some of the best technologies available for farming in arid and semi-arid environments. One such technology is the center-pivot irrigation system (CPI). In satellite images, CPI-irrigated fields appear as green dots. These Landsat images, from 1986 and 2004, reveal the effects of this irrigation strategy in a vast desert region in Saudi Arabia known as Wadi As-Sirhan. This region was once so barren that it could barely support the towns Al'Isawiyah and Tubarjal that can be seen in the upper left of each image. Following the introduction of center-pivot irrigation, however, barren desert was gradually transformed into a greener, food-producing landscape. The irrigation system draws water from an ancient aquifer-some of the water it contains may be as much as 20 000 years old. Judicious use of water resources, and climate-appropriate technology, has in this situation helped improve food production without being detrimental to the environment. Additional images showing change are located under the Downloads tab.

Explanation / Answer

ANSWER:

Rich in oil but lacking abundant renewable water resources, Saudi Arabia used oil revenues to develop domestic agriculturebased on groundwater from non-renewable aquifers (Elhadj 2006). Subsidies, direct and indirect, led to astonishing growthin agricultural output (Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia n.d.). Large center-pivot irrigation projects such as the one above atWadi As-Sirhan appeared in the vast Saudi desert. However, by one calculation the cost of wheat produced reached aroundUS$ 500 per tonne, several times the cost of imported wheat (Elhadj 2006). In2008, the Saudi government announcedplans to phase out wheat production by 2016

At the country level, variations are even higher. In 2005–7, four countries (Libyan
Arab Jamahiriya, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Egypt) used volumes of water for
irrigation that were larger than their annual renewable water resources. Overall,
eleven countries used more than 40 percent of their water resources for irrigation,
the threshold that is considered critical. An additional eight countries withdrew
more than 20 percent of their water resources, indicating substantial pressure and
impending water scarcity.

The Athabasca Oil Sands region of Alberta, Canada forms the second-largest deposit of recoverable oil in the world afterSaudi Arabia (CAPP n.d.). The energy and environmental costs of recovering the low quality oil, however, limited its development for decades. As the price of oil has risen there has been a rush to exploit the deposits lying under parts ofCanada’s boreal forest.Just as global averages mask regional differences, variations at the country levelcan be hidden. In at least three countries (Libya, Saudi Arabia and Yemen) evaporation
rates due to irrigation in 2005–7 were higher than each of their annual renewablewater resources (FAO, 2010c). In China, for example, regional stresses are greater in.the north of the country, and this will intensify. Areas dependent on non-renewablegroundwater, such as parts of the Arabian peninsula, face a particular challenge: the
potential depletion of their entire resource.

Related Questions

Navigate

• Browse (All)
• Browse C
• Subjects

---

---

Integrity-first tutoring: explanations and feedback only — we do not complete graded work. Learn more.