Title : Grey water as a potential, energy efficient solution for diverse water requirements of the UAE: Insights from research involving grey water for irrigating selected fodder crops of the UAE.
Abstract:
The growing demands of UAE's water needs are directly affecting the energy requirements of the region as well. It is high time to explore methods and measures that result in the provision of energy smart water sources. The potential of grey water as a reutilised source of water has shown prospective results across the globe. Grey water is a less utilized resource having immense potential for recycling and thus contributing to circular economy. The meagre energy demand of reusing the grey water for multiple uses makes it an attractive source in an arid country like UAE. The instances from across the world from countries like Israel and other developed countries who lead the research in grey water show that there is a promising niche for grey water to grow out as a “neo source” for multiple purposes from flushing in multi storeyed high-rise buildings to incredible uses including potability. In this research, utility of grey water in irrigating the fodder crops of UAE is being attempted. While we plan means to achieve self sufficiency over dairy production, effective ways to be worked out for conserving the water use for per capita fodder production too. Therefore, most common fodder crops cultivated in UAE were identified and seeds were collected from the farms of UAE. Nine different varieties were grown in greenhouse in pots as 5 major experimental blocks utilising two treatments of different irrigation. The outlet grey water is collected from a food production factory located in Ajman, UAE. The use of liquid chemicals containing surfactants and chemicals are mostly used for vegetable and handwashing purposes in this factory. The experiment is planned so as to get the three best performing varieties of fodder crops from the green house as a first phase. The second phase emphasises the location specific accumulation of heavy metals, viz-where in the plant, which profile of the soil or in the outlet water. In the first stage, samples of water and soil are selected for finding a set of parameters contributing to the performance of each variety. The samples grey water, both filtered and unfiltered, show slight difference in Total Nitrogen content, 5.6 and 4.48 mg/L respectively The parameters like heavy metals, EC, pH, BOD, COD, TSS and other factors of relevance were analysed.
The vigour of the plants are the best observed in the blocks irrigated by grey water than in normal tap water. The preliminary stage of the experiment itself shows promising results that could be added as a benchmark or breakthrough in the water research sector which can ultimately contribute tangible reduction in the consumption of water other than for potable purposes in the UAE.
