Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Environment, Water, and Agriculture has signed an agreement for joint cooperation with King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST) aiming at establishing a technical innovation center for water and agricultural research.
Both bodies are keen to integrate and cooperate in the fields of research and development in water and agricultural sectors to serve the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 development requirements and aspirations.
The cooperation agreement, which seeks to achieve the national strategic goals for water, was signed by Deputy Minister Eng. Mansour al-Mushaiti and KACST President Dr. Anas bin Faris al-Faris.
The signing event was attended by Minister of Environment, Water, and Agriculture Eng. Abdulrahman al-Fadhli.
The objectives of the agreement include finding solutions for the water sector, developing research skills, building national capabilities, and exchanging information and data in the fields of water and water studies to attain efficiency in the sustainable management of water resources and benefit from the services and equipment of plants and national laboratories.
Both sides have agreed to conduct research in several areas, including the sustainability of water resources to reduce groundwater depletion in the Kingdom, the development of simulation models for groundwater, as well as the development of systems for rainwater and torrential management, the detection of water transmission and distribution leaks and the use of treated wastewater for various purposes.
The cooperation seeks to rationalize water use in agricultural irrigation processes, develop techniques to treat water desalination and reduce its production cost, protect water sources from pollution, in addition to developing techniques for harvesting water from the air, monitoring climate changes, and predicting their effects on water sources.
In the agricultural field, they seek developing greenhouse technologies that take into consideration the Kingdom’s conditions, as well as integrated agriculture and rural development.
Both sides also aim at building a system of smart villages and manufacturing industries for agricultural waste and developing phytosanitary techniques and an electronic agricultural quarantine model, digital herbicides, and micro-insecticides.
