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Middle East faces water crisis
The World Bank has warned the countries of the Middle East and north Africa that they face a crisis in water availability unless they develop more efficient and transparent policies.
- By Heba Saleh, Financial Times
- Published: 00:00 March 15, 2007
The World Bank has warned the countries of the Middle East and north Africa that they face a crisis in water availability unless they develop more efficient and transparent policies.
The bank's estimates, contained in a report launched this week in Cairo, show that by 2050 per capita water availability in the region will fall by 50 per cent.
The "social, economic and budgetary consequences could be enormous" if governments do not accelerate reform to deal with water scarcity.
Arid regions
The countries of the Middle East and North Africa (Mena), one of the most arid regions in the world, already use more water than they receive through rainfall and river flows each year, thus depleting groundwater resources.
Climate change will reduce available water by a predicted 20 per cent, while demand from fast-expanding populations will rise.
"We want the pace of ref-orm to accelerate," said Julia Bucknall, the World Bank's lead natural resources specialist for the region. "We want water to be a consideration in non-water reforms and we want to see a more sustainable set of policies."
The report argues that countries need to develop comprehensive water management strategies that take account of how decisions unrelated to the water sector affect farmers and other water users.
"Energy and input subsidies exacerbate unsustainable uses of groundwater," says the report.
"Most Mena countries provide important subsidies for energy. One unintended consequence is to make pumping of water attractive, even when water has to be pumped over 500 metres from aquifers to the surface."
The report cites Yemen as an example of an agricultural country where subsidised fuel and high demand for the water-hungry narcotic qat plant have helped deplete aquifers.
It also says the government has been unable to enforce water legislation because tribal leaders who control local water resources play an important role in the political system.
In contrast, the report says, Jordan's diversified and mostly urban economy has given the government the leeway to regulate the use of scarce underground water.
The World Bank also argues that governments and water authorities need to become more accountable to users in order to cut waste and ensure expensive hydraulic projects meet actual needs.
In some countries of the region 25 per cent of all public investment goes into the water sector, but often with poor results.
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