May 18, 2010 ]Water Scarcity[

Water Scarcity

Middle East

Syria

Abstract

In these rapid growth rate in the population and demand of water in the middle east and north

Africa, in these area that suffer form limited suffice and ground water recourses ,these cantreyes

are facing serious issue of satisfying the demand for water, Water managers and planners have

given high priorities to locating, developing, and managing new water resources now a day there

are many project to build new dams and creating multi-purpose reservoirs, to increase the

Renewable Water Resources (TRWR), the new Challenge for those planners is the clement change

“the Global warming “and the desert that is became beggar and the organize tree cutting all of

these elements are badly effacting the plane for the managing water .

The objective of this paper is to discraip the water setuation and water quality and to think of

different possible ways to manage water demand and the water managing , and to discuss the

role of agricultural suorce of wasting drinking water taking into account the history of

management and the local conditions in Syria: political, social and economical.

Note:

1. TRWR is less than the water scarcity index (1000 m3/person/year). Experts consider that a
Country in which the per capita TRWR falls below this index will experience bad situation that
Will affect its economic development

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I. Introduction

Nearly 40 percent of the world s population, most of it in the developing countries, is already

facing serious water shortages. More and more nations are gradually joining the list spichily

Middle East countries where Water has always been scarce and it may be the most important

resource, not oil, but now with growing populations and the clement change make the situation

difficult and critical, the increase demand on this limited resources and the right of using the

water can lead to conflict between countries.

The wealthy Arab countries can meet some of their needs by desalinating seawater. In other hand

others drill ever-deeper wells which in time may only make the problem worse.

One new and important element is the concept of "virtual water". Growing wheat, for example,

by importing wheat and concentrating on crops which need less water, a country can apply the

concept of "virtual water" and use existing water resources more efficiently and effectively.

Water is kind of key to future development, without enough water resources for aglecultur and

for industry ther will be a economic loss and it may threaten public health and socio-economic

development.

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II. Body

1. Fact about Middle East water :

A. The global average is 8,462 cubic meters where an average of only 1,383

cubic meters of renewable water resources per person per year in 2006, the

MENA1 region falls far below. Environmental problems resulting from water

issues cost MENA countries between 0.5 and 2.5 percent of GDP2 every year.

B. Environmentalists in Jordan are warning that the Dead Sea will disappear by

the year 2050 if its level continues to drop at the current rate.3

1
MENA: Middle East and North Africa
2
GDP: The gross domestic product
3
BBC news Friday, 3 August, 2001, 23:00 GMT

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C. Saudi Arabia called for over $53 billion in investment to increase its

desalination capacity to 10.7 million cubic metres per day by 2020. The UAE

too needs to invest at least $10 billion in water investment to satisfy growing

water needs.4

2. middle east toxic water problem

a. the areia off the middle east have been in war 3 time after the 1950 and there

a Suspicion that a non-normal wopen had been used spacaly Iraq war in 2003

b. the Soviet Union had agreement with some cuntryes in the middle east to

keep or Bury some of Nuclear waste in the middle east soil and that done

years ago, to get melotery equipment in the 70s and 80s of the last century,

and its became a danger to the graund water resours becous of the Radiation5.

c. Almost all the contrry in the middle east still use the chlorine to deal with the

water and make it pure from microbes and that have bad effect on the

Consumer of the water and the ground water.

3. Quality of water :

4
May 2009, Arab News
5
United States. Congress. House. Committee on Energy and Commerce. Subcommittee on Energy and
Power.Nuclear waste disposal : hearing before the Subcommittee on Energy and Power of the Committee on Energy
and Commerce, House of Representatives, One Hundred Third Congress, second session, August 3, 1994

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 May 18, 2010 ]Water Scarcity[

a. Bottled water: there is an increasing demand for bottled water in the region.

This may be due to perceptions that it is of better quality and is more

convenient to use, but sometime this bottled water is the same water in homes.

b. The water network is old and in bad condision and there is ESCWA6 survey

questionnaires in 2008 shows a scary facts about the condision of water and

its networks

TABLE1 . FREQUENCY OF WATERBORNE DISEASE OUTBREAKS IN SELECTED ESCWA MEMBER COUNTRIES

7

4. War for water

a. The water resources of the Middle East are unequally distributed, and major

rivers in the region crosses international borders and shared by two or more

nations that make sharing of water a political problem. In northeast Africa

6
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMISSION FOR WESTERN ASIA
7
ESCWA survey questionnaires, 2008.

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and the Middle East, and more than 50 percent of the population relies on

river water that flows across international border.

b. Since it is a very wide subject, it touches the complexity of the Arab-Israeli

peace process. Agreement on the cooperation use of the region’s water

resources would be a major block in the construction of peace in the area.8

c. Turkey taks more than its share of water from the Euphrates River, by

bulding dam in 1998 to control more water from the river and that lead to

buting the Troop on borders and redy to have military confrontation, But a

diplomatic solution come fast to end that potinsual war.9

5. Solutions for water scarsity

a. Desalination of seawater: refers several processes that remove excess salt and

other minerals from seawater,now its very important specially in the gulf area

becous its srounded by sea and ther is few sarfice water resources,and the

energy is sheap becous of avalbelty of oil. In the middle of 2007, Middle

Eastern desalination accounted for close to 75% of total world capacity.10

8
Economic cooperation in the Middle East by Gideon Fishelson, p.303
9
BBC NEWS .Sunday, October 4, 1998 Published at 17:39 GMT 18:39 UK
10
ischetti, Mark (September 2007), "Fresh from the Sea", Scientific American (Scientific American, Inc.) 297

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