DOHA • Texas A & M University at Qatar (TAMUQ) in partnership with the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Agriculture organised a workshop titled "groundwater as a main water source for agriculture in Qatar" at the Tamuq premises yesterday.

The workshop was the culmination of two days of scientific presentations by researchers at the First annual Doha Conference in Applied Mathematics and Computational Science, which was held on Sunday and Monday.

Speakers at the opening session included Dr Sheikh Faleh bin Nasser Al Thani, director of the GDARD, Dr Richard Ewing, Vice President for Research at Texas A & M University and Dr James Holste, Associate Dean for Research at Tamuq.

Four hours of scientific presentations followed.

Sheikh Faleh said, "It is decided to give a special priority to maintain and protect our sole natural water source which is groundwater. The workshop is planned to be the first one in a series of workshops to discuss several critical issues in the whole of the agricultural sector and try to find suitable solutions. It is our pleasure to have Texas A & M now in the country and we are delighted to cooperate with such a veteran university."

Dr Kamel M Amer from GDARD gave a presentation on "the state of groundwater in Qatar", which gave an overview of the groundwater management and policy issues.

International renowned researchers from Germany, Norway and the US then discussed various practices and issues for underground water systems, saltwater intrusion, and groundwater quality, and examined mathematical challenges involved in modeling and simulation of groundwater systems in subsurface regimes like those found in Qatar.

Dr Richard Ewing said, "It was interesting to see a team of interdisciplinary experts in groundwater modeling and management from around the world come together in Doha with water management experts from Qatar to discuss common issues, to share best practices, and to build potential collaborations."

The workshop was jointly funded by the General Department of Agricultural Research and Development (GDARD) at the Ministry, the Vice President for Research at Texas A & M University and Tamuq.