Too Much Conflict and Not Enough Policy Makes MENA a Thirsty Region

Amid on-going conflict in many Mid-East and North African (MENA) countries, there is a huge problem that will affect that region’s ability to sustain population growth in the future. That problem is major lack of drinkable and potable water. Julia Devlin discusses the impact of this water crisis in her article Is Water Scarcity Dampening Growth Prospects in the Middle East and North Africa?

The region has managed to create an agricultural system that employs many but, MENA grows more susceptible to damage from climate change due to the area’s arid soil and low amounts of rainfall. In particular Syria is facing possible desertification of up-to 60% of its land area. There has been a surge in population and not enough preparations have been made to sustain the growth. Furthermore, current irrigation practices create a lot of wasted water due to their inefficient set-up.

There are many problems that the region has when it comes to creating a sustainable water solution. Few places have truly taken a look at how to deal with the looming crisis. One country that has is the U.A.E. They have worked on creating irrigation systems that are more efficient and use “smart” technology. This technology uses sensors that determine when and if a field needs more watering which, is a vast improvement in consumption compared to automatic watering systems that rely solely on timers.

 Naturally, areas that are in conflict and with little to no leadership and vastly smaller budgets may not have the ability to research and test such options as the U.A.E has. The point is that it seems that many of the areas that will be hardest hit by this water shortage are too consumed by ideological struggles to even begin the task of sitting at the table with other members of the region to begin making headway on a life sustaining resource shortage. Talk about not seeing the forest for the trees. Even if some MENA governments are not paying attention, the hope is that they have a community of citizens that are. Many major problems find solutions not from the government but from the people under its rule that needed the innovation most.