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Water under the bridge and beyond that

It is no hidden fact by now that the MENA region holds about 5% of world population with only 1% of the world’s renewable water resources -- about 335 km3/year, 50% of which is generated outside it. Water resources development and management have been driven by the highly specific characteristics of climate, geography, and the resource itself. The main groundwater aquifers are shared between several countries. Ostensibly, water management in that region has far-reaching impacts beyond the water sector more than in any part of the world. In a recent report, Energy Management Services (EMS) declared that Arab states must invest US$100 billion on desalination over the next decade if demand for water keeps growing at the same pace, especially in the GCC.
A set of challenges have ailed this part of the world: Water scarcity is high up on the scale as it has the least per capita share in the world in addition to a declining per capita share. With the news of absolute water scarcity forecast by 2025, researchers and scientist sounded the alarm bell. Growing demands and uses practices have only magnified the pressure on already frail and meager water resources and their ecosystems. With distinct differences from one country to the next, more than 83 million persons need to be supplied with safe water and 96 million with sanitation services in order to meet the MDGs. The UN children’s agency announced that more than 1.5 million children under five die each year because they lack access to these mere necessities.
The situation looks murky: Egypt and Mauritania, for instance, depend on more than 97% renewable water originating outside the country while Saudi Arabia groundwater abstraction is 4-times the annual recharge. The per-capita share of water resources in Palestine, Kuwait, and Jordan is 93, 180, and 190 m3/person/year, respectively. At the same time, more than 50% of the Mauritania and Somalia population lack access to clean water.

Going for the guns

Policy responses to this pending problem have varied between countries in the region, but took place in three levels depending on the degree of water scarcity and extent of water resources development in each country.
In terms of supply management, hefty sums have been paid to store and divert water and to provide varying water services. With reference to demand management: Egypt alone spent US$ 10 billion on potable water, US$ 16 billion on sanitation services in 1982-2004, and US$ 2.5 in irrigation infrastructure during 2000-2004.
Almost all countries in the region are engaged in the development of appropriate instruments and institutions to manage water demands including: Investing in technology that minimizes demands, improving reliability and accountability in service delivery, and involvement of stakeholders at all levels of planning and management. Iran has invested considerably in dams and diversion infrastructure, harnessing over half of the total resources available (some 73 km³).
On the level of institutional innovations, many countries created a unified institutional structure for integrated resource management. In the GCC Countries and in Yemen, for instance, an independent ministry is responsible of managing their water resources. In Egypt, a cabinet level ministerial committee is now responsible for inter-sectoral coordination of water resources management.
A huge leap has been taken with the introduction of decentralization: Yemen decentralized water supply and sanitation to self-accounting autonomous corporations; Syria established independent water directorates at the basin level and decentralized water supply and sanitation services; and Egypt established Integrated Water Management Districts at the local level.

Sharing the glory

Regional experience has proven that shared water resources cooperation, partnerships for management or investment, or simply technical cooperation can be beneficial to all parties and, in fact, later lead up to a peaceful environment on a mega scale. That has goaded cooperative management of shared water resources between many countries such as: Agreement on the Tigris-Euphrates River Basin between Iraq and Syria; agreements between Lebanon and Syria over the waters of the Orontes and Nahr El Kabir Rivers; bilateral water-sharing agreements over the Jordan River; major progress in regional cooperation on the sustainable utilization of the Nubian Sand-Stone Aquifer between Egypt, Libya, Sudan, and Chad; Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya have reached prosperous cooperation for the North Western Sahara Aquifer, not to mention the Nile initiative involving 10 riparian countries which has paved the way for regional cooperation beyond the water sector including power trade, transportation, environment, etc..
Many other larger than life projects are on the cards, region-wide, to constructively cut down on these alarming scarcity rates. The UAE, for example, is launching full throttle with a set of projects like the US$272 million sewage treatment plant and a water transport system at a cost of another US$272 million. Saudi Arabia is establishing a colossal desalination plant which will supply 400,000 cubic meters of water daily. The Kingdom is also privatizing water and wastewater management. Oman has recently signed a number of water and wastewater management deals worth hundreds of millions of US dollars. Muscat is also constructing the Wadi Dayqah Dam project, the largest of its kind in the Arabia Pennisula, for a whopping US$ 111 million dollars. In Jordan, an US$800 million project – the Red Sea-Dead Sea Conveyer – will salvage the Dead Sea. Work on the US$125 million Zara-Maain water project in the country is also underway to overhaul Jordan’s water treatment and desalination scope. Qatar is not lagging far behind. It is planning major expansion of its desalination capacities.

In the mean time, however, the region has to carry on promoting regional cooperation; improving the quality of water services further; and realizing better governance in water resources management in order to keep close tabs on the situation.