Resource information
The Middle East and North Africa (MENA)
region is one of the most water-stressed parts of the world.
In just over 25 years, between 1975 and 2001. Looking to the
future, MENA's freshwater outlook is expected to worsen
because of continued population growth and projected climate
change impacts. The region's population is on the way
to doubling to 700 million by 2050. Projections of climate
change and variability impacts on the region's water
availability are highly uncertain, but they are expected to
be largely negative. To offer just one more example,
rainfall and freshwater availability could decrease by up to
40 percent for some MENA countries by the end of this
century. The urgent challenge is how to adapt to the future
as illustrated by these numbers and how to turn the
region's economy onto a sustainable path. This volume
suggests new ways of thinking about the complex changes and
planning needed to achieve this. New thinking will mean
making better use of desert land, sun, and salt water the
abundant riches of the region which can be harnessed to
underpin sustainable growth. More mundane, but just as
important, new thinking will also mean planning for
dramatically better management of the water already
available. Right now, water is very poorly managed in MENA.
Inefficiencies are notorious in agriculture, where
irrigation consumes up to 81 percent of extracted water.
Similarly, municipal and industrial water supply systems
have abnormally high losses, and most utilities are
financially unsustainable. In addition, many MENA countries
overexploit their fossil aquifers to meet growing water
demand. None of this is sustainable while water resources
decline. This volume hopes to add to the ongoing thinking
and planning by presenting methodologies to address the
water demand gap. It assesses the viability of desalination
powered by renewable energy from economic, social,
technical, and environmental viewpoints, and it reviews
initiatives attempting to make renewable energy desalination
a competitively viable option. The authors also highlight
the change required in terms of policy, financing, and
regional cooperation to make this alternative method of
desalination a success. And as with any leading edge
technology, the conversation here is of course about scale,
cost, environmental impact, and where countries share water
bodies plain good neighborly behavior.
