Making the Most of Scarcity : Accountability for Better Water Management in the Middle East and North Africa

Most of the Middle East and North Africa
(MENA) cannot meet current water demand. Many countries face
full-blown crises, and the situation is likely to get even
worse. Estimates show that per capita water availability
will be cut in half by 2050, with serious consequences for
aquifers and natural hydrological systems. Demand for water
supplies and irrigation services will change as economies
grow and populations increase, with an attendant need to
address industrial and urban pollution. Some 60 percent of
the region's water flows across international borders,
further complicating the resource management challenge.
Rainfall patterns are predicted to shift as a result of
climate change. The social, economic, and budgetary
consequences of these challenges are enormous. The supply of
drinking water could become more erratic, necessitating
greater reliance on expensive desalination technologies, and
increasing drought would require emergency supplies brought
by tanker or barge. Service outages would put stress on
expensive network and distribution infrastructure.
Unreliable sources of irrigation water would depress farmer
incomes, economic and physical dislocation would increase
with the depletion of aquifers and unreliability of
supplies, and local conflicts could intensify. All of this
would have short- and long-term effects on economic growth
and poverty, exacerbate social tensions within and between
communities, and put increasing pressure on public budgets.