Farm closed for using sewage water

Saad Al-Muqbil, general director of the General Administration of Agricultural Affairs in the Eastern Province, has said that the administration barred one farm from selling its produce due to its use of sewage water in irrigating crops.
The farm owner was fined SR50,000 and 14 greenhouses in his famr were dismantled. This resulted in an estimated loss of SR300,000 to the owner.
Local consumers had complained of vegetables sold in one of the well-known local grocery shops tasting foul and had voiced their concern about the quality of the crops. Shoppers demanded more intensive health control and supervision of fruits and vegetables sold in the province.
Some criticized the management of environmental sanitation in the Eastern Province Municipality and the General Administration of Agriculture.
Saad Al-Khatib, one of the shoppers, said that his wife was troubled by the foul smell emanating from the vegetables as they were being cooked.
“My wife and I stopped buying fruits and vegetables from street vendors and stalls because we noticed they were selling poor quality vegetables. However, the produce we bought from the well-known grocery shop turned out to be the same; they tasted foul and had a sewage taste to them,” he said.
Al-Muqbil said that a committee was formed to monitor the irrigation of crops. The committee comprises officials from the governorate, the police, the municipality, the Agriculture and Health Affairs, the Presidency of Meteorology and Environment and the Saudi Food and Drug Authority.
The general director asserted that during one of the committee’s field trips the specialists detected that one of the farms located in the scheme of Tufayh agricultural area, was using sewage water to irrigate crops in 14 greenhouses.
“The greenhouses were dismantled, and the seeds and drip irrigation equipment as well as crops such as: tomatoes, cabbage, cauliflower and lettuce were all destroyed; costing the owner around SR300,000,” he added.
“Appropriate action has been taken against the farm owner, as he has been fined SR50,000 and banned from selling his produce for two years,” the official stressed.
He said that the committee has not found any other instances of the use of sewage water in farms across the province.
In an earlier statement, Al-Muqbil revealed that 5 percent of agricultural products in the region contain pesticide residues.
He commended the efforts of the Agricultural Extension Department in the ministry in reducing the use of pesticides.
“The Agricultural Extension Department was able to ensure that 95 percent of agricultural products were pesticides-free and that 90 percent of the farms in the province were applying modern irrigation methods,” he said.