Water Scarcity Impacts and Potential Conflicts in the MENA Region

Abstract

The failure of water resources to meet the basic requirements of society has a host of social, economic, environmental, and political impacts. This paper addresses those impacts with particular reference to the region of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Water scarcity is a manmade phenomenon brought about by the increasing demands of the population for water. The imbalance in the population-water resources equation strains society and has an adverse impact on domestic hygiene, public health, and cost of domestic water, and could impart political problems as serious as bringing down governments. On the social side, water scarcity adversely impacts job opportunities, farm incomes, credibility and reliability of agricultural exports, and the ability of the vulnerable to meet the cost of domestic water. Economically, the adverse impact is displayed in the loss of production of goods, especially agricultural goods, the loss of working hours because of the hardships society faces as a result of water scarcity. The impacts of water scarcity on regional stability are addressed with reference to water in the Middle East Peace Process. Finally, the serious impacts of conflicts and potential water wars are discussed. Water, energy, and environment are triplets. The eventual solution to water scarcity lies in the invention of an energy generating technology that renders the cost of power affordable by societies and that does not impart serious environmental problems.