The Middle East is running out of water

A recent research study by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace suggests that the Middle East is deeply impacted by climate change, governance, sharpening socioeconomic inequalities, and new obstacles added along the way. 

The region has been severely affected by climate change over the past few decades, with temperatures rising by 1.5 degrees Celsius since the 1950s, according to Gidon Bromberg, the Israel director of EcoPeace Middle East, “And we’re expecting an additional four-degree increase in temperature by the end of the century,” Bromberg told The Media Line. 

Water scarcity may be the origin o a pending regional dispute. 

Rainfall in Jordan is expected to drop by 30% before the end of the century, and some models predict a reduction in MENA’s internal renewable water of around 4% by 2050 affecting between 80 million and 90 million of the region’s inhabitants whose water woes will soon convert into water insecurity by 2025. 

Bromberg says that water insecurity is currently the most pressing concern in the Middle East, requiring urgent redressal measures at the regional level. 

“There’s a failure still to understand that the response to the climate crisis cannot be sufficient on a national level, it must be at a regional level,” he explained. “Climate crisis does not hit one particular country; it hits the region as a whole, and if the region is to survive then the region is going to have to respond.” 

Mutual cooperation is a must to cultivate mutually beneficial relationships between the three partners to maximize the use of natural resources. A recent agreement stated that Israel and the PA would produce desalinated water, which they would sell to Jordan, which would then sell renewable energy back to the Palestinians and Israel. 

As EcoPeace’s website explains, this would enable each partner to “harness their comparative advantage in the production of renewable energy and water.” 

In November 2021, some progress was made toward this desired outcome with the signing of the EcoPeace-led UAE/Israel/Jordan water-energy agreement. Jordan is expected to construct 600 megawatts of solar generating capacity to be exported to Israel, while Israel will provide Jordan with 200 million cubic meters of desalinated water. 

Bromberg said that the situation could be partially rectified by “harnessing the sea through large-scale desalination of seawater,” and “large-scale harnessing of sun, mostly through solar power.” 

The latter objective is critical to reducing CO2 emissions in the region and converting the Middle East from an exporter of fossil fuels to a potential exporter of renewables. 

Hala S. Murad, executive director of the Dibeen Association for Environmental Development located in Jordan bemoaned government laxity in a conversation saying that “the self-preparation of the participating Arab governmental teams remains below expectations and hopes.”  

This is partially due to technical and financial limitations. For example, Murad pointed to the regional Arab Environment Council of the League of the Arab States, which works on promoting regional solutions, but is financially limited by the lack of a unified Arab fund to support regional environmental projects. 

One of Dibeen’s key scientific approaches to the impending climate crisis is to monitor cities and villages in Jordan, particularly observing how efficiently they manage natural resources such as land, forests, and water. 

Dr. Mahmoud Hanafy, a scientific advisor at HEPCA, says that regional cooperation must be a reality for marine ecosystems to thrive.  “Marine environments are a kind of connected ecosystem,” he explained, adding that Red Sea coral is especially tolerant of the effects of climate change, so it may be the last refuge of coral in the world which makes it all the more important internationally. “We’re seeing more heat waves; we’re seeing real change in the way rain patterns occur; all rain on the coast is lost at sea; less recharge of groundwater and less water in the whole Jordan river system; less water in Jordan’s dams,” Bromberg observed.   

Truth is that despite various paper-tiger commitments to the ME, it is important to acknowledge and accept the fact that the environmental commitments are meant to be taken more seriously.