Many are the dangers that surround the necessities of Arab national security, and many are the challenges that are intensifying viciously and aggressively to undermine the elements of this national security. Perhaps the element of water in the Arab world is today at the forefront of the fundamental pillars that make it vulnerable to loss, and it portends disaster in the next few years if the causes are not remedied and [safety] precautions are not taken.

Shortage of Water Resources

The Arab region is generally considered among the regions experiencing a severe shortage of water resources. It will need at least about $40 billion of investments over the next ten years to meet the acute shortage of water, particularly in the supply of fresh water, which has become one of the main problems facing Arab development in general, and the tourism agricultural sectors in particular. Thus, Arab States must spend 1% of their annual GDP to ensure adequate water resources, particularly in the major cities, because the Arab region is poor in water resources compared with the international average. That average is estimated at about 7675 cubic meters (255,833 cubic feet) [per country] while in the Arab world this average is currently about 1,436 cubic meters (47,866 cubic feet) [per country].

Arab Government Support

With the migration of large numbers of rural people to settle in the cities in the next decade, the level of water consumption will increase with changes in lifestyle. This in turn will increase the burden on Arab governments that will have to continue to allocate additional resources to obtain water. Therefore, this added value in obtaining the water will be the reference point for setting the prices of some of the products and essential services to the Arab citizen.

According to studies, Arab citizens will spend 2% of their income on water despite the continued government price subsidy, especially since the Arab region is dominated by agriculture, which consumes about 88% of available water while industrial consumption does not exceed the 6% rate, despite the fact that the Arab agriculture only contributes 10% of the Arab nations' GDP.

Seawater Desalination

In the Arab world there are about 45 million people who have no access to clean water sources because of inadequate supplies. They are mostly the poor who live in remote areas that are more vulnerable to the spread of water-transmitted diseases. This alone prevents the improvement of their economic and social development. The dependence of the Arab region at large on water increases every year with poor weather conditions that have prevailed, and consequently the decrease in rainfall and underground Arab stocks in general has led to increased reliance on seawater desalination despite the prohibitive costs.

Qatar is the country in the region most dependent on seawater desalination, at a 98% rate of its daily needs, followed by Kuwait with about 80%, the UAE with 60%, Bahrain with 50%, Saudi Arabia with 40% and Libya with 20%. But in the rest of the Arab countries it is still acceptable to use their groundwater and river sources. Nevertheless, even the countries that enjoy an abundance of water sources have more than 10% of their population lacking access to high-quality water resources.

Hence, the water issue in the Arab world is a real crisis. Poor weather conditions led to a reduction in groundwater inventory and a decline in the drinking water supplies and thus led to mismanagement in their distribution and usage.

Riparian Arab countries with international rivers such as Syria, Iraq, Egypt and Sudan need new agreements with the other riparian countries, particularly those upstream, to insure proper sharing of water resources in accordance with international law.

Challenges

There is a deterioration of Arab water security for several reasons, notably the limited size of the wetlands area that does not exceed 10% of the total area of Arab nations. This is in addition to widening desertification, the pollution of water with industrial, agricultural and household waste, and the misuse of water while following traditional irrigation means in the agriculture sector, which consumes a large share of water. All this would increase the gap between the amount of water available and the quantities required for manufacturing, agriculture, drinking and power generation. No less significant is the increase in population, which requires additional quantities of water for their needs, which means that the area will enter an epoch of new challenges no less daunting than the challenges mentioned earlier. This requires a return to joint Arab collective action in order to study the anxieties and challenges facing these nations and make a unified stand for the sake of joint Arab national security.

al-Thawra, Syria, February 13, 2008. The article originally appeared in Arabic and excerpts from the article were translated by the staff of www.memrieconomicblog.org.