North Africa and the Middle East facing severe water shortages.

Nick 0208 Ldn

Governments in the Middle East and North Africa need to invest now if they want to avoid severe water shortages in the future, the World Bank has warned.

The amount of water available per person in the arid region will halve by 2050, a report from the bank estimates.

It blames climate change and population growth for new pressures on supplies.

Governments in the region should tackle water waste, build more efficient networks and reduce water use, the World Bank says.

Farming challenge

The bank's report suggests agriculture is a key target area.

With 85% of water-use devoted to agriculture, the report suggests countries such as Morocco will have to cut back on irrigation and switch to crops that require less water but earn more money.

According to its figures, declining water quality has already knocked around 1% off gross domestic product in Morocco, Algeria and Egypt, and nearly 3% in Iran.

"We've simply got to reduce the amount of water used, especially in agriculture," said Julia Bucknall, natural resource management specialist at the World Bank, addressing reporters Rabat, Morocco.

She added that water firms needed to cut water lost by evaporation.

"If we plan for the future, it's a lot simpler than crisis management further down the line," said Ms Bucknall.

Governments must increase public education projects on water and develop new infrastructure projects, including desalination plants, the bank's report says.

Bank officials identified Tunisia and Jordan as being strong performers in managing water demand and making the most of available water resources.

Morocco has invested in dams to catch water but in farming regions around Agadir, the water table is seven times lower than in 1982.

The BBC's James Copnall in Rabat says North African and Middle Eastern countries have had years of experience in coping with water shortages, but the challenge, it seems, is about to get much harder.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/mid...st/7341977.stm



The Yemeni capital has particular and more immediate problems if i remember right as to a report that came out late last year.

topper

hey nick - some of yer posts have been a tad disappointing from a caff posting perspective - do try harder next time

Sultan

Treating wate water and desalination plants are most likely to play a major part in providing water for drinking and irrigation in the future. Middle East is already a major user of this technology.

Sultan

Water: Use it, don't abuse it.

MikeUpNorth

Since when are you technically clever?

Sultan

I'm most likely talking rubbish, but the engineers working on a few projects in Cape Verde whith very limited amounts of rain are looking at providing water through this technology as part of the infrastructure for our project.

It's very expensive at present, but it should get cheaper in the future.

Clueless

Why not just build huge mountains to create more rain?

Dr. Dwayne

ukbob

Its a question of redistributing water as we do not loose a single drop of the stuff only what is dumped in space. One way or the other we have the same amount as we did thousands of years ago.

Sultan

We most likely do Bob, but users, and uses have multiplied many folds.

IBleedRed

A water shortage in the desert?

no shit...?

The Hairdryer

Unfathomable.

Alex

Shocking

Nick 0208 Ldn

Is that so?



The smart ass comments assidc for a minute, you must all be aware of the food price crisis parts of the world are experiencing currently. Do you suppose that if the water supply is even less in future years, and with greater population and other demands upon it, that this is some minor issue that we face here?

Do you know that in the election in Cyprus only the other month that water was one of the main topics for debate with the candidates?

And in th 1990s in Turkey the Allianoi Roman Baths were revealed to the world after 1,800+ years. Now though after barely no time at all we are going to bury them again, or more accurately we are going to submerge such cultural heritage thanks to the ridiculous construction of an irrigation dam project. No small controversy.