Regional Overview

These pages highlight the water demand status in the Eastern Mediterranean Region.

Water Demand Management and Pollution Control: Key to securing and Safeguarding the Water Supplies of MENA in the 21st Century, by Hamed Bakir. Paper presented at: 1st Dedicated Regional Conference on Water Demand Management, Conservation and Pollution Control, Oct.2001, Amman, Jordan
The water resources of the Middle East and North Africa region (MENA) have been the subject of numerous studies, reports, and conferences both at national, sub-regional, and regional level. Various information sources suggest that limited water resources are one of the main constraints to social and economic development and even a source of insecurity. The water shortages in the region are a result of two categories of conditions:
1. Structural conditions related to geographic location, climatic characteristics and population growth. Water policies and management practices can do little to influence these conditions.
2. Management-induced conditions brought about by existing water policies and management practices. These conditions can be averted and their impact reduced through improved water management policies and practices.
…[more]

Other sources of information:

Workshop on Water Policy Issues in the Middle East and North Africa - Briefing Packet, Includes Excerpts and Summaries, by: John Roberts, Global Water Report, June 2002.

Alternative Policy Study: Land and Water Resources in Arab African Countries (From UNEP's GEO-2000 Report: Technical and Regional Reports)
Current water resources are estimated at 217 cubic kilometres a year for surface fresh water and a further 28.3 cubic kilometres of renewable groundwater. While fresh water resources will remain more or less constant, and may even decrease due to increased drought in some countries of the sub-region, the human population is increasing. As already stated, the total population of the sub-region in 1995 was 172 million; water demand had already exceeded the actual water available in the sub-region by about 46 per cent. By 2025, with the total population projected to reach 274.4 million, there will be a further serious reduction of the per capita share of water resources. …[more]

CIHEAM Annual Report (Ch. 7): Mediterranean Countries and the Water Problem
Scarcity of water is a major constraint in arid and semi-arid countries of the Mediterranean. In many countries, all available water resources which can be used for economic purposes have already been developed or are in the process of development…[more]

Mediterranean Vision on Water, Population and the Environment for the 21st Century, by: Jean Margat & Domitille Vallee', Blue Plan, January 2000
Mediterranean water resources are limited, fragile and threatened. They are already intensely utilized, especially in the South and East, and they are often badly utilized…[more]

Water Resource Management: Sector Overview and Development Context - Water scarcity is a serious development challenge facing the Region.
(World Bank - Middle East and North Africa)
It is widely recognized that the Middle East and North Africa (MNA) region is by far the driest and most water scarce region in the world and that this is increasingly affecting the economic and social development of most countries of the Region. MNA has 5% of the world population with less than 1% of the available world's freshwater resources…[more]

Urban Water & Sanitation: The Current Situation. (World Bank - Middle East and North Africa)
Water is a scarce and precious resource in the Middle East and North Africa (see under water resources). Population growth, rising living standards and urbanization increase the pressure on the resource, leading to increasing costs of urban water supply. Water scarcity and higher costs could further reduce the already low performance of many public urban water and sanitation utilities in the region…[more]

Water Resource Management: The Regional Water Initiative for the Middle East and North Africa
The mission of the Regional Water Initiative (RWI) for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) is to help countries in the MENA region formulate and implement national water resources policies and strategies to meet the challenge of sustainable water resources management and economic growth, and to catalyze increased attention to the problem of managing limited water resources more efficiently…[more]

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