Southwest Asia (Middle East) Water Problems Crisis Briefing

Water is a very important resource in the Middle East but there isn’t enough of it. The source of water varies from country to country. Some, like Egypt and Iraq rely mostly on surface water from large international rivers. Others, like Yemen, and Djibouti depend almost entirely on groundwater and desalination, while others use a mixture of surface and groundwater. Most countries are using almost all available surface water, and many major rivers do not reach the ocean anymore as a result because the water gets used up. www.worldbank.org

Problem 1- Dry Land Much of North Africa and southwestern Asia is covered with desert. The Sahara extends from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea. From the Red Sea to the Persian Gulf lies the Rub’ Al Khali Desert in the southern part of the Arabian Peninsula and the Badiat-El-Sham Desert in the north of the peninsula

Yearly Average Rainfall

Not only dry land but… DROUGHTS! To make matters worse, droughts often affect the ME, reducing many countries already low yearly average rainfall levels to 10% of normal in extreme cases.

Problem 2- Population Growth Many countries in the Middle East have been experiencing rapid population growth. Growth rates have averaged around 2.5% per year. Even though this growth rate isn’t as high as other countries in the world, the available water in the ME cannot sustain the growing population.

To put it in perspective- the ME takes up less than 20% of the world’s land area and has a little more than 10% of the world’s population, but only 2% of the world’s fresh water.

Population Density

Problem 3- Water Per Person World Bank figures show than an average person in the world uses 1,850 gallons of water per year. In the Middle East, the average usage per person is 265 gallons. The population of the ME is projected to rise 200 million people by 2025. This will cut the water per person in half to 132.5 gallons.

Perspective: you use 10-20 gallons of water every time you take a shower. How many showers could you take in the Middle East with the amount of water projected per person in 2025?

Projected Water Availability by 2025

Problem 4: Agriculture Agricultural use of water is enormous, even though agricultural products are only a small part of the ME’s countries' production. For example, agriculture is less than 10% of Jordan’s GNP (the total value of goods and services) but farms there use 80% of the nation’s water. Other countries have similar statistics.

Dams and irrigation systems divert the few rivers that exist in the region. The dams can also be used to produce hydroelectricity. Turkey and Iraq have dams on the Euphrates River. Israel has dams on the Jordan. Both divert water for irrigation.

Ataturk Dam

Ataturk Dam, Euphrates River, Turkey

Birecik Dam and Birecik Dam Lake on Euphrates River

The Mosul Dam on the Tigris River in Iraq

The downside of dams and irrigation techniques is that they disrupt the river ecosystems. Land along the Tigris and Euphrates river depends on periodic flooding, but that doesn’t happen with dams.

The Dead Sea is fed by the Jordan River, but today only about 10% of the Jordan’s discharge gets to it. This has caused the Dead Sea’s depth to decrease significantly.

Problem 5 Water Pollution

Many farmers have begun to use chemical fertilizers, which have contaminated water supplies through runoff into the rivers and streams. Constant planting and fertilizer use have led to the build-up of salt levels in soils, eventually making it impossible to farm in those areas. In the rush to develop industry, many cities and towns have grown rapidly, but the people living there have been slow to create effective ways to manage garbage and treat sewage.

For More on Problem 5 On the blog: 1. listen to the NPR video clip 2. Look at the NPR images PowerPoint 3. watch the video about pollution in the Tigris 4. Read the document: Iraq Suffers as the Euphrates River Dwindles