Monitoring Desk
WASHINGTON: As the effects of climate change are increasingly felt worldwide, nations in the North Africa and Middle East which was the most water-scarce region in the globe, are facing ever-greater depletion of their water resources.
According to the Arab News, economic instability often stands in a way of effective water-related management and development programmes.
These were among the key messages from the online panel discussion hosted by Middle East Institute in Washington.
Researchers and scientists said that countries in the Arab world must embrace fresh ideas and technologies to help preserve water supplies and find new ways to limit loss.
Water Crisis
Levels of water scarcity vary from place to place in the MENA region. So diminishing supplies lead to greater political instability and more conflicts between states over access to precious resources.
While older methods of gauging rainfall, evaporation and precipitation, evaporation remain valid in the modern era, they recommended that satellite-imaging technology be used to monitor and better understand rain.
Raha Hakimdavar, adjunct water and climate science professor at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service in Washington D.C., noted that the accuracy and availability of satellite imagery vary from place to place. So it can’t resolve all the questions water scientists need to be answered to help them develop proper solutions to water loss in the region.
Youssef Wehbe, a non-resident scholar in the climate and water programmes at the Middle East Institute, said: “Today, the MENA region placing unprecedented stress on water supplies, leading to the abrupt increase in water demand, threatening local food security and harming regional ecosystems.”
He added that the region could not keep up with the growing demand for water due partly to its nature as an arid and semiarid region with less than 200 milliliters of precipitation a year and evaporation levels exceeding 55%.
He said that “As a consequence, the available water resources can’t cope with human demand in all major sectors,”.
American, Japanese and European satellites have produced accurate and reliable data about water resources in America, Europe, and Asia. In the Middle East, there continued to be a significant lack of accuracy in the available satellite data and imagery related to water issues, mainly due to a lack of participation in initiatives to collect it.
some Arab Gulf nations, such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE, have established ambitious and promising space programmes that could usher in an age of satellite-based water research, said Wehbe, who is a programme officer for The United Arab Emirates (UAE) Research Programme for Rain Enhancement Science.
