Understanding water conflicts in the MENA region

It is not easy to determine whether water is really scarce in the physical sense or whether it is available, but people cannot get access to it, or use it better. This paper reviews selected physical water scarcity indicators, and criticisms made against them on several grounds. Under the premise that the water scarcity issue is inherently multidimensional, a composite Water Poverty Index has been developed, to complement the traditional physical water indicators. In this paper we propose some technical refinements based on principal component analysis, in order to improve the method of calculation of the index. Using the proposed methodology, the present paper assesses the applicability of the index for the MENA region, by comparing the situation of oil-rich and water-poor countries (Gulf States) with that of lower-income yet water-rich countries (Horn of Africa states).

This study presents a comprehensive longitudinal assessment of water poverty in Morocco, a severely water-stressed nation, using the multidimensional Water Poverty Index (WPI) for the period 2010–2022 at a national scale. Unlike previous cross-sectional analyses, a time-series approach has been employed to dynamically track changes, addressing a critical gap in WPI literature. Utilizing 16 variables across five WPI components, the analysis reveals significant fluctuations in overall water poverty, with the WPI notably ranging from a low of 43.90 in 2011 to a high of 57.91 in 2021. The Resource and Use components emerged as the primary drivers of these variations, highlighting the profound impact of increasing water scarcity due to climate change and escalating agricultural demand, which accounts for nearly 85% of total water consumption. Based on these findings, the study provides data-driven policy recommendations for enhanced governance, conservation strategies, and agricultural sector transformation. The implications underscore the urgent need for targeted interventions to improve water use efficiency and resilience in Morocco. This research demonstrates the WPI's utility as a robust, transparent, and dynamic monitoring tool, offering valuable, replicable insights for sustainable water management in other water-stressed developing economies globally.

Whilst there are several empirical studies linking water scarcity and violent conflicts, existing quantitative studies use mostly climate and environmental variables even though such variables have been shown to not be strong predictors of water conflicts by some studies. The aim of this study was to use the water footprint concept and the Falkenmark index to identify water scarcity hotspots at the sub‐national scale and to understand the links between water scarcity and violent conflicts in the Sahel and Lake Chad Basin over a period of two decades (2000–2021). We achieve this by developing five water scarcity metrics at a monthly timescale using runoff, soil moisture, potential evapotranspiration, water consumption and demographic data. The developed metrics show high levels of water scarcity across the study area during the dry, pre‐monsoon and post‐monsoon seasons. Analyses further reveal high green water scarcity (GWS) (soil moisture deficit) and low Falkenmark index scores (water stress) during the dry, pre‐monsoon and post‐monsoon seasons, across all reported water conflict locations. This suggest that there is an indirect link between GWS, the Falkenmark index scores and water conflicts. Results from this study may be used to enhance water management, mitigate, and prevent water conflicts in the study area and likewise the methodology adopted may be used to address water scarcity and conflicts in other regions.

The lack of access to safe drinking water and the insufficient provision of individual drinking water needs are among the defining characteristics of slum areas. This study investigates the extent of this problem in Gresik Regency, East Java, Indonesia, a region characterized by the ubiquity of slum settlements across all sub-districts. The study aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of clean water access, water quality, and community capacity in managing water resources with implications for achieving sustainable housing. This study assesses water poverty levels using the Water Poverty Index (WPI), which considers five dimensions: resource availability, accessibility, capacity, usage efficiency, and environmental sustainability. The result shows the WPI of Gresik Regency revealed a score of 73.95, indicating a low level of water poverty, suggesting that the region's water security is in a good condition. Among the five dimensions constituting the WPI, the environmental dimension falls into the category of relatively high WPI or environmental poverty, with a score of under 50. This indicates that while access to water is available and affordable, issues related to waste management and future water resilience remain low. Water scarcity in the Gresik District is an illustration of global challenges related to water poverty, such as in Myanmar, India and South Africa, which have WPI values below 55. This research emphasizes the importance of a holistic approach in managing water resources by prioritizing environmental quality as the main priority

This study details an application of an improved Water Poverty Index (iWPI) to investigate and assess state of water resources in 53 African countries for the period 2000–2012 with a special focus on an international comparison of water poverty among northern and sub-Saharan countries. A multi-faceted approach that combines physical estimates of water availability with socio-economic drivers of poverty and environmental factors, has been used to do such comparison. It is with this in mind that the iWPI was developed based on the theoretical foundations and recent development of the water poverty approach. This would permit an inclusive comprehension of the crosscutting nature of water issues and their impacts on human wellbeing and environment. The results highlight an obvious dissimilarity of water poverty situation between more developed, but water-poor countries located principally in North Africa with that of lower-income and water-rich countries in sub-Saharan region. This can be used to inform policy makers, governments, donors and other stakeholders to assist in prioritization of appropriate policies to be taken towards better service delivery and sustainable water management across space and time.

Population growth and rising water demand, climate change, severe droughts, and land-use changes are among the top severe issues in Iran. Water management in this country is sectoral and disintegrated. Each authority evaluates water based on its final intention and there is no commonplace indicator for evaluation programs. In this research, we used the Water Poverty Index (WPI) to map the status of water scarcity in a north-eastern province of Iran. Water poverty was measured based on five components of “Resources”, “Access”, “Capacity”, “Use”, and “Environment”. The scores on each component were then aggregated using the weighted multiplicative function, assuming equal weights for all components. The overall WPI was evaluated to be 41.1, signaling an alarming and serious water poverty in the study area. Based on the results, Azadshahr (29.1) and Gorgan (61.6) districts had the worst and the best conditions among all cases, respectively. To better understand the importance of WPI components, four weighting alternatives were used; however, none of them resulted in a tangible improvement of WPI index. The cross-correlation between the components was also evaluated, with Access and Capacity showing significant results. Leaving out “Capacity”, however, reduced WPI by 8.1. In total, “Access”, “Capacity”, and “Use” had the highest correlation with WPI, implying that any attempt to improve water poverty in the province must firstly tackle these issues. This study showed that WPI is an effective indicator of water scarcity assessment and could be used to make priorities for policy-making and water management.

Mexico faces severe water scarcity due to population growth, industrial activities, and climate change. The arid and semidesert conditions prevalent in northern Mexico, particularly in Nuevo Leon, significantly accentuate the challenges associated with water scarcity. This region is vulnerable to water scarcity due to minimal rainfall, recurrent droughts, and the increasing pressure of water demand from the densely populated Monterrey. We examined the disparities that contribute to water poverty by comparing water scarcity between rural and urban populations in Nuevo Leon. The results revealed significant contrasts in water scarcity between the two populations, indicating that different factors contribute to water poverty based on regional, territorial, and cultural characteristics. We selected the water poverty index (WPI) as an evaluation metric due to its inherent compatibility with available data sources, which facilitates its application to stakeholders and ensures comparability with other regions. This study contributes to studies on water scarcity assessment by addressing a critical limitation of the WPI. We compared three weighting methods—equal weight, principal component analysis (PCA), and analytic hierarchy process (AHP)—and identified that PCA and AHP demonstrated a superior performance compared to the standard methodology. These findings underscore the importance of considering region-specific conditions, as well as socioeconomic disparities between rural and urban populations and their role in vulnerability to water scarcity in calculating water poverty. These insights provide valuable information for customized solutions to regional challenges, representing leading actions toward sustainable development.

The Water Poverty Index is intended to reflect an interdisciplinary metric that links household health to the availability of water and shows the degree to which human populations are impacted by water scarcity. Across the Rajarhat CD block, North 24 Paraganas, water poverty is a complex and deeply rooted problem. This continues to be a persistent and pervasive problem across the region, despite some progress in reducing water insecurity in recent years. Insufficient water quality, low economic growth and quality of life, limited water resources, relatively high population growth, less or no accessibility to primary health care, higher education, safe drinking water which constitute the basic social services and in accessibility of water supplies have caused water scarcity to continue in the area. Persistent water scarcity is also a result of lack of proper institutional framework both at government and non-governmental level. This research was aimed at measuring the WPI and drawing a map of the water shortage of the area, given the close relationship between water and hunger. The research was conducted at the smallest administrative unit of the CD Block, the Patharghata GP. A clear assessment of the prevailing situation, including an index listing the components of the facilities, Access, Capacity, Use and Environment of the WPI, is required to achieve the objectives. As a consequence, the data obtained for this study focused on water scarcity assessment related to metrics such as water availability, quality, water stress, water usage for household usage. For calculation of WPI both primary data that has been obtained from field survey and recorded secondary data have been taken into consideration. Water Scarcity Maps are drawn using the GIS program. Finally, Patharghata village has poor levels of water poverty, despite its poor quality of life.

Water scarcity is one of the main challenges facing countries in arid or semi-arid zones. As an example, Egypt needs to deal with both insufficient quantity and quality of water for residents. Here, we propose actions and policies to promote an integrated water management approach to respond to water challenges in Egypt. Based on a literature review, we have selected a set of criteria concerning the environmental, economic, social, governmental, and physical dimensions of urban water management. We studied approaches from Peru, Namibia, and South Australia as these countries have similar climatic conditions and water issues and have made substantial advances toward sustainable water management. Key criteria are state or municipal ownership of water and related infrastructure, agreement on master plans for sustainable water management, improvement of water sanitation and overall infrastructure, and reduction of water demand. Participatory, and educational campaigns put water issues at the center of public debates. We evaluated which elements of water management approaches can be adapted and used in Egypt, which faces limited freshwater resources, and which faces a highly increasing population. Proposed actions included directing water fees to ecosystem projects, treatment of wastewater to be potable, participatory approaches that engage the community in water management, educational campaigns that lead to change of public perception and knowledge dissemination. We interviewed key stakeholders in the water sector in Egypt to validate our proposed approaches. The stakeholders supported knowledge dissemination, suggested using water fees in implementing environmental projects and criticized converting wastewater into drinking water. Finally, we drafted specific recommendations at the organizational and urban levels of water management. We recommended establishing a General Organization for Water Management to oversee water-related organizations and ministries. We also recommended prioritizing the economic conditions to support alleviation of water subsidy, increasing public awareness, and creating a public database for water knowledge. In addition, we recommended decentralized water management and water sensitive urban design. The value of these approaches is their applicability, with minor adaptations, to countries with similar or close climatic and socio-economic conditions to Egypt, such as the MENA region.

Inadequate provision of water-related services in developing countries continues to undermine strategies for poverty alleviation. The root lies in the inability of policy makers to tackle resource development in a holistic and integrated manner. This requires a multi-faceted approach to combine physical estimates of water availability with the socio-economic drivers of poverty. It is with this in mind that the Water Poverty Index (WPI) was created. However, water resources are dynamic, and the linkages between water scarcity and poverty incorporate complex cause-effect relationships. Water poverty should thus be addressed in a more systemic way. This would allow a comprehensive understanding of the crosscutting nature of water issues and impacts. In this paper, a system approach has been adopted to develop a structured framework for a multi-dimensional evaluation of water poverty in basins. It is an attempt to assess the diverse, interacting components of catchment processes, societal pressures, and policy actions. An enhanced Water Poverty Index (eWPI) has been developed and is proposed in this study. To exemplify the utilisation of the index, and to test its applicability and validity, eWPI has been piloted in a Peruvian watershed as initial case study. Results highlight the likely utility of the tool to identify areas for improvement, and ultimately guide appropriate action towards better service delivery and sustainable management of water resources.

Water Poverty Index (WPI) is a simple and transparent tool to measure water stress at the household and village levels so that local an'd national water agencies can manage problem of access to water, quality and variability; water uses and capacity for water management considering environmental aspects. The research aims to calculate WPI in the upper Bagmati river Basin of Nepal in order to analyse the real water situation in the project area. WPI was estimated using five key components through the consultation with wide range of stake holders, policy makers and scientists for resource, access, capacity, use and environment.The WPI was calculated for the upper Bagmati river Basin together with High–Medium–Low category scale and interpretations. WPI intensity scale depicts Sundarijal and Lubhu are in a range of very low water poverty, which means the water situation is better in these two areas. Daman region has a medium level, meaning this region is located into poor-accessible water zone. Kathmandu, Sankhu and Thankot have a low to medium low WPI, what characterize them as neutral. WPI can be used as an effective tool in integrated water resources management and water use master plan for meeting sustainable development goals. Based on the observation, the water agencies required to focus over water-poverty interface, water for sanitation, hygiene and health, water for production and employment generation, sustainable environmental management, gender equality, and water rights.

For developing countries, an adequate domestic water supply is conventionally assessed based on the proportion of communities that are covered by improved water sources. However, it is difficult to evaluate water poverty accurately, as it is multidimensional. For this reason, this paper used the Water Poverty Index (WPI) to measure water poverty in rural communities of arid areas in China. This study also uses the Least Square Error (LSE) model to analyze the influencing factors of water poverty. Based on the WPI and LSE, the results showed that the rural communities of Sheshu, Fanyao, Dongcao, Qiaodi, and Gouershang (listed in order of priority of need for intervention) are in a water poverty situation. In rural communities with high water poverty, the suggested priority order for the study was environment, capacity, use, resources, and access, with the environmental factor needing to be improved. The results are useful for prioritizing areas and identifying the extent of the need for policy intervention on different scales. The research findings are intended to complement the evaluation of water poverty and to provide a strategy for regional water resources management to relieve water poverty.

An examination of the mitigation effect of vegetation restoration on regional water poverty: Based on panel data analysis of 9 provinces in the Yellow River basin of China from 1999 to 2019

The water shortage crisis is one of the main concerns that is threatening the biological security in Iran. According to available data and information, providing a framework for the assessment of water poverty in Iran seems crucial. The land-dividing unit in Iran is the province, and most of the governmental information is gathered based on this unit. In this sense, Isfahan province, which is one of the central provinces in Iran that is suffering from water crises, has been selected. The water poverty index (WPI), which is adopted in accordance with Iran’s situation, including five components of resources, access, capacity, use, and environment, has been used for each of Isfahan’s cities. “Capacity” and “use” has the greatest correlation, and it seems any advancement in water utilization for economic purposes might result in increased capacity, and vice versa. Also, there is a positive correlation between WPI and components of access, capacity, use, and environment. It can be interpreted that the lack of access to water services may be due to a lack of income or education. Finally, access, capacity, and use showed the strongest relationships between WPI and its subcategories. Therefore, these three elements should be the main focus of any initiative to manage the water poverty in Isfahan province.

As the world gathers momentum for the realization of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030, it is pertinent for nations and regions to begin to evaluate and address specific challenges to development imperatives. The problem of shortage of quality water for consumption in Sub-Sahara Africa (SSA) has been widely discussed by different academic and technical experts using diverse platforms. There are various statistics revealing a gloomy picture of water poverty on the continent despite its relative abundance of natural water resources. While the challenges and the issues that characterize the problem have received critical attention and strategies for better resource management for sustainable provision of quality and adequate water have been suggested, water poverty continues to ravage the region. This research adopted the Secondary Data Analysis method to investigate the fundamentals of the problem. The paper revealed the central roles of unethical human disposition to resource consumption and unregulated consumption pattern in exacerbating the problem of water poverty in Africa. Flagrant abuses and disregard for environmental resource management instruments in pursuit of economic and subsistent opportunities constitute major catalyst for the increasing water poverty in Africa. In light of the above, the paper explored the social justice principle of the blue ethics to contribute to the on-going discussion on water resource management in Africa.