Water management solution pathways under climate change in the Middle East region, RésEAU Brief no. 5 (December ... - ReliefWeb

Water management solution pathways under climate change in the Middle East region, RésEAU Brief no. 5 (December 2023) - Jordan | ReliefWeb

1. Water use and management in the Middle East region: challenges and opportunities

1.1 Water scarcity in the Middle East region

Countries in the Middle East are the most water stressed in the world, that is, they withdraw the highest proportion of freshwater of the total available resources ( de Waal et al., 2023).

In SDC’s programming, the Near East region is composed of Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, the Occupied Palestinian territory, and Syria, with the wider Middle East including the Arabian Peninsula and Iran (SDC, 2020).

The focus in this brief is on Jordan, as a country illustrative for the water, climate, and geo-political challenges in the Middle East, crossing the development and humanitarian spheres in this fragile region. Jordan was therefore the host of the AGUASAN workshop 2022 (AGUASAN, 2022).

This brief refers to the Middle East and Northern Africa (MENA) region when mentioning broader regional realities and sources, as this is the region covered by the Sub RésEAU MENA (with members from Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan,

Syria, occupied Palestinian Territories, Yemen, Tunisia,

Egypt, Morocco, and Turkey).

A recent World Bank (2023) study concludes that the MENA region is facing unprecedented water scarcity. “By 2030, the water available per capita annually in MENA will fall below the absolute water scarcity threshold of 500 m3 per person per year. Water scarcity will become even more acute as the population grows. The region’s population grew from just over 100 million people in 1960 to more than 450 million in 2018. It is estimated to reach more than 720 million by 2050”. Without adjustments in current water management strategies, water demand will rise and shortages will have a detrimental impact on livelihoods and agricultural output and may raise tensions among users, notably between farmers and cities (de Waal et al., 2023).

Important to highlight in relation to population growth are the urbanisation tendencies as well as the additional pressure faced by countries such as Jordan, on water systems and services due to the influx of displaced people, putting both host communities and refugees at risk.

Available water resources are overallocated across consumptive uses as agriculture, cities, and industry (see the volumetric importance of irrigation water use in the region in Figure 2). This increases tensions over water resources, within countries as well as in transboundary basins.

The key drivers of water scarcity are related to demographics and economic growth (see also Droogers et al., 2012). Yet the cost of climate-related inaction is much higher in MENA than in other regions of the world. Continuing along the current path of water management and allocation could cost the region much more than elsewhere.