| General Overview of the Water Problem in Arab Countries |
| Dr. Tuğba Evrim Maden, ORSAM Water Research Program Specialist, temaden@gmail.com |
 Arab countries constitute 10% of the world surface. Despite that, these countries receives 2% of annual rainfall and have 3% average annual water potential. Average annual precipitation rate in this region is about 250mm; however, most of the region is arid and receive less than 5mm rainfall in average in a year.
According to projections for 2015, most of the countries in the region will face a water scarcity. According to Falkenmark index, Malin Falkenmark associated total populations of countries with the total amount of water resources in 1989 and prepared an index that shows the pressure of population on water resources regarding the needs of natural system. Threshold defined as “Falkenmark Index” is an index that identifies the pressure on water resources and it is used frequently. According to this index minimum daily domestic water need per capita is 100 liter and agricultural and industrial water need is 500-2000 liter per day. The annual threshold is determined as 1700 m3 per capita. It is also determined that if the numbers go down, water shortage can be observed; if the numbers go down below 1000m3, the country will face a water scarcity ; if the numbers go down below 500m3, a severe chronic water scarcity will be experienced. While 9 of these countries gets 200m3 water per capita , 6 of them will get less than 100m3 water per capita. Researches made for 2025 has shown that Iraq and Lebanon will stay above the water shortage limit. In these countries, the amount of average annual surface water is 224 billion meter cubic and 77% of that water comes from outside of the region. The amount of average annual underground water is calculated as 50 billion meter cubic for this region that has limited underground water. Desalinated sea water is an important water resource especially for Gulf countries. As seen in other regions of the world, water resources are mostly used for agriculture and this utilization rate is about 85% in average in these countries. Especially in Egypt, Algeria, Sudan, Morocco and Syria provide 71% of total agricultural products in Arab countries. In addition to this, irrigation efficiency is about 30%.
Population growth and socio-economic developments increase the water demand day by day in countries in the region. While 83 million people living in the region don’t have the access to clean drinking water, 96 million people are deprived of sanitation. It is indicated that daily domestic water usage is 200 liter per person. While domestic water usage was 12,000 million meter cubic in 1995, it increased to 16,000 million meter cubic in 2002. Domestic water usage increased 30% in 6 years. The rate of domestic water usage is 7% in the region. In the countries of Gulf Cooperation Council, daily domestic usage of water changes between 300 and 750 liter per capita.
The annual amount of waste water that is caused by industrial and domestic use of water is about 10,85 billion cubic meter. 6,49 billion cubic meter of that water is treated. Remained 4,39 billion cubic meter water that is 40% of total waste water is not treated.
Chronic imbalance between water demand and water supply in Arab countries is expected to increase more if there are not changes in management of water demand, if water supply is not increased or if the control of water usage is not properly done. Moreover, it is indicated that the fact that great amount of the surface water in the region shows the characteristic of being transboundary, appropriation of water is influenced by political balance, great amount of the underground water is not renewable, regulation and control of water quality show weakness and the climate change and concerns about food security constitute the main elements of water problem. Arab countries import 50% of their food demand and they are the main importer countries of the cereals in the world.
In the presence of ascending water stress, some countries are preparing projects so as to use water more efficiently and intervene in order to make up the difference between supply and demand. Especially reuse of waste water by treating is an important step towards easing the water stress. The annual amount of reused water is about 2.17 billion cubic meters. Among Arab countries, Egypt, Syria, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates are the countries that use treated water at most. In the struggle against water shortage, reuse of waste water provides an advantage, but in the meantime, a reasonable management and allocation of water is needed and the reuse of waste water should be extended and should be supported financially, technically and institutionally.
*The numbers in this analysis are taken from the rapport of World Bank, Arab League, Arab Water Council and International Center for Biosaline Agriculture in 2011
|
Countries |
Total water withdrawal (109 m3/year) |
Total wastewater produced (109 m3/year) |
Volume of treated wastewater (109m3/year) |
Volume of treated wastewater reused water(109 m3/year) |
|
Algeria |
6,07 |
0,82 |
0,7 |
0,051 |
|
Saudi Arabia |
23,67 |
0,73 |
0,652 |
0,166 |
|
Bahrain |
0,3574 |
0,0449 |
0,076 |
0,0163 |
|
Comoros |
0,3574 |
- |
- |
- |
|
Djibouti |
0,019 |
0 |
- |
- |
|
Egypt |
68,3 |
3,76 |
2,971 |
0,700 |
|
UAE |
3,998 |
0,5 |
0,454 |
0,248 |
|
Iraq |
66 |
0,575 |
0,098 |
0,0055 |
|
Libya |
4,326 |
0,546 |
0,04 |
0,04 |
|
Jordan |
0,941 |
0,117 |
0,111 |
0,102 |
|
Kuwait |
0,913 |
0,25 |
0,239 |
0,078 |
|
Lebanon |
1,31 |
0,31 |
0,004 |
0,002 |
|
Morocco |
12,6 |
0,700 |
0,177 |
0,080 |
|
Mauritania |
1,7 |
- |
0,0007 |
0,00035 |
|
Oman |
1,321 |
0,098 |
0,037 |
0,0023 |
|
Qatar |
0,55 |
0,444 |
0,066 |
0,043 |
|
Syria |
16,7 |
1,37 |
0,550 |
0,550 |
|
Somali |
3,298 |
- |
0 |
- |
|
Sudan |
37,32 |
- |
- |
- |
|
Palestine |
0,418 |
0,05 |
0,03 |
0,00544 |
|
Tunisia |
2,85 |
0,461 |
0,240 |
0,068 |
|
Yemen |
3,4 |
0,074 |
0,046 |
0,006 |
|
Total |
256,303 |
10,85 |
6,492 |
2,164 |
|