Managing Scarce Water Resources in Agriculture in West Asia and North Africa - Restorative Redevelopment of Devastated Ecocultural Landscapes - page 440

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Jordan WA NA Europe World North

America

FIGURE 22.2 Annual renewable water share.

The average annual per capita renewable supplies of water in WANA countries is
now about 1,500 m 3 , which is well below the world average of about 7,000 m 3 (Figure
22.2). This level has fallen from 3,500 m 3 in 1960 and is expected to fall to less than
700 m 3 by the year 2025. In 1990 only one-third of the WANAs countries had per
capita water availability of more than 1,000 m 3 , the threshold for water poverty level.
In Jordan, the annual per capita share has dropped to less than 200 m 3 . Mining
groundwater is now common in the region risking both water reserves and quality.
In many countries securing basic human water needs for domestic use is becoming
an issue, not to mention the needs for agriculture, industry and environment.
The water scarcity situation in WANA is getting worse every day. It is projected
that the vast majority of the WANA countries will reach the severe water poverty
level by the year 2025; one-third of them are already below that level. Over the
coming years this situation will worsen with increasing demand, given the fact that
the possibility of new supplies is limited (Seckler et al. 1999). The increasing pres-
sure on this resource will, unless seriously tackled, escalate conflicts and seriously
damage the already fragile environment in the region. This is particularly obvious
between countries in the Middle East with shared water resources.
River flows generated in the mountains of Africa and Turkey are providing critical
water resources to some of the water-scarce countries downstream. Egypt, Sudan,
Iraq, Syria, and many other countries in the region obtain more than 50 percent
of their renewable water resources from neighboring countries. Syria, Algeria, and
Lebanon are increasingly affected as scarcity grows year after year. Nonconventional
water resources, which are contributed by rainwater harvesting, desalination of sea-
water, physical transport of water, trading of virtual water through import of grain
and other agricultural commodities, saline drainage water, and wastewater generated
by household, industrial, and municipal activities, also provide an important, but
limited, share of the water demand of the water-scarce countries.