Project info
While greenhouses have made progressive steps towards water conservation in horticulture, there is always room to improve. One of our recent projects in Lebanon offers a good opportunity to contemplate the scarcity of water and what greenhouses can do to use it responsibly.
The coastal area is one of Lebanon’s main crop production regions. Vegetables are grown all year round here thanks to the Mediterranean climate, soil fertility and the greenhouses. In this area one of the largest concentrations of greenhouses on the Mediterranean Sea can be found, dedicated to vegetable production such as paprikas, tomatoes and cucumbers. Farmed plants cannot survive without irrigation, so water is indispensable.
The generous rainy season in winter gives potential to a circular provision of rain water, making the implementation of a rainwater harvesting system in this type of climate very profitable. With rainwater harvesting is referred to the collection of rain water rather than allowing it to run off. In such a system it is important to have sufficient storage to meet the crops needs and to accommodate the amount of water to be harvested. Our NPI metal water tanks are often used in rainwater harvesting systems, storing collected rain for further use in the irrigation process.
Our Lebanese partner Robinsons SAL Lebanon purchased three water tanks last year. Robinsons SAL is a leading agricultural company working in Lebanon, the Far East and MENA region. Two of the ordered water tanks are identical with a capacity of about 203 m3 each and a third one has a capacity of 81 m3. They serve two projects: a greenhouse complex with a variety of vegetables and the other one is a rose nursery.
