Water Scarcity

The major part of the Arab population lives in arid and semi-arid areas, where the scarcity of land and water resources imposes severe constraints on the socio-economic development. An increasing number of Arab countries are approaching - or have reached - full utilization of all water resources. In some cases present water consumption far exceeds natural replenishment. This in turn leads to a growing dependance on non-renewable - and exhaustible - water resources.

Declining groundwater levels, severe water shortages in urban and rural areas, and saltwater intrusion in coastal zones have hence become widespread indicators of an unprecedented water-crisis in the region. Furthermore, taking into account the high population growth, the projections of per-capita water availability in the Arab Region show an alarming trend beyond the existential threshold.

The groundwater resources are not only threatened by over-abstraction but also by the deteriorating groundwater quality.

Industrial emissions, inadequate waste management and misuse of agrochemicals and fertilizers are virtually omnipresent causes of environmental pollution. Frequently, the various safety standards of water quality for industrial, agricultural and domestic purposes cannot be met. The logical consequence is a further decline in overall water availability. Because of the scarcity of water, however, nearly all water resources (including heavily polluted surface and sewage water) are being used for agriculture with hardly any restrictions.

While water treatment is already a costly solution, remediation of polluted groundwater aquifers is extremely costly and difficult, time consuming and sometimes practically impossible. Prevention of pollution, therefore, is much better than cure.

Due to its multifunctional nature, the Soil cover is of great importance in this context: Soil is a protective filter for underlying groundwater resources, a storage pool for nutrients, an interface and buffer to the environmental compartments air and water. Soil, however, is also a very vulnerable natural resource.

The loss of soil cover, the decline in soil fertility and increasingly the pollution of soil resources have contributed to land degradation and desertification - being at the same time associated symptoms and causes in a complex vicious circle. In the past decades thousands of acres of once fertile agricultural lands have been lost throughout the Arab Region.

Despite pronounced efforts and external support, many Arab Governments are not yet in the position to address the threats to groundwater and soil resources and to avert the aggravation of environmental and socio-economic problems. The protection of groundwater and soil resources can only be implemented effectively if there is a strong legal basis to support it and if all involved parties take protection issues sufficiently into account.