diff --git a/backend/src/db/knexfile.ts b/backend/src/db/knexfile.ts
index b81285d22..532ab496d 100644
--- a/backend/src/db/knexfile.ts
+++ b/backend/src/db/knexfile.ts
@@ -17,7 +17,15 @@ dotenv.config({
 export default {
   development: {
     client: "postgres",
-    connection: process.env.DB_CONNECTION_URI,
+    connection: {
+      connectionString: process.env.DB_CONNECTION_URI,
+      ssl: process.env.DB_ROOT_CERT
+        ? {
+            rejectUnauthorized: true,
+            ca: Buffer.from(process.env.DB_ROOT_CERT, "base64").toString("ascii")
+          }
+        : false
+    },
     pool: {
       min: 2,
       max: 10
@@ -31,7 +39,15 @@ export default {
   },
   production: {
     client: "postgres",
-    connection: process.env.DB_CONNECTION_URI,
+    connection: {
+      connectionString: process.env.DB_CONNECTION_URI,
+      ssl: process.env.DB_ROOT_CERT
+        ? {
+            rejectUnauthorized: true,
+            ca: Buffer.from(process.env.DB_ROOT_CERT, "base64").toString("ascii")
+          }
+        : false
+    },
     pool: {
       min: 2,
       max: 10