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1994-05-02
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<text>
<title>
New Focus on Water Issues Urged for Arab Countries
</title>
<article>
<hdr>
Joint Publications Research Service, August 22, 1991
Regional Affairs: New Focus on Water Resources Urged for Arab
Countries
</hdr>
<body>
<p>By Maghawari Shihatah Diyab, "The Water Crisis Will Be the
Cause of the Next Middle Eastern War", [Cairo, Al-Wafd in
Arabic, 16 May 91, p. 10].
</p>
<p> It is an inescapable fact that the world now suffers to one
degree or another from crises in renewable, usable resources.
Some of the world's regions suffer from a shortage on the
quantity of fresh water, some regions suffer from the quality of
the water, and others suffer from a problem of both quantity and
quality.
</p>
<p> In fact, if we look at the overall balance of fresh water in
nature, we could see that the total volume of water on the
globe is estimated to be about 1,400 million cubic kilometers,
of which 97 percent is the water of seas and oceans, which is
salt water, and that three percent, most of which is found in
the form of above ground and underground water, is distributed
in the following manner: .03 percent is river water, and 24
percent of the total 3 percent that is fresh water is
underground water. Looking comprehensively at the Arab nation,
we see that there is a crisis in the balance of fresh water and
that this crisis will intensify and increase in severity if
immediate and decisive measures are not taken to contain it.
</p>
<p> We would like to stress that fresh water resources are
important and necessary not only for drinking, industry and
domestic use, but also for food production, especially of the
grains, of which the Arab world imports 60 percent of its needs.
</p>
<p> It is certain that the vast areas of land of up to 15
million square kilometers include millions of feddans that would
be arable of they were provided with the necessary factor of
water. Thus it can be said that the food gap from which the Arab
world suffers is in fact a crisis in the balance of water in the
Arab world. According to reports available on the Arab world,
the water balance needed to cover the total needs of its
population now and in the future can be summarized as follows:
</p>
<p> First: It is expected that by the year 2000 the population of
the Arab world will reach 265 million, and in 2010 it will be
285 million; in other words, the population is growing at a rate
that varies between 2.9 and three percent, according to
statistics done by UNESCO.
</p>
<p> Second: According to statistics done by agencies such as
UNESCO, the total cultivated land in the Arab region overall is
45 million hectares--"108 million feddans." As for irrigated
land, its area is 10 million hectares, which is equal to 24
million feddans.
</p>
<p> Third: By examining the reports and statements coming from
UNESCO in 1988 on the water balance demand and supply for the
Arab nation which was calculated for 1985 as follows:
</p>
<p> 1) Currently 139,853 million cubic meters of surface water
resources are utilized; of underground water resources, 22,552
million cubic meters; and of other resources, "rain, fog, etc."
9,724 million cubic meters, for a total of 172,129 million
cubic meters.
</p>
<p> 2) The demand for drinking is 7,016 million cubic
meters; industry, 1,344 million cubic meters; and agriculture,
296,602 million cubic meters, for a total of 304,962 million
cubic meters.
</p>
<p> 3) The 1985 deficit, 304,962-172,129 = 132,832
[as published] million cubic meters. We must surmise the extent
of the expected deficit in coming years in light of the
population increase just to maintain current activities as they
are now. It is clear from that that there is a deficit of about
44 percent between water supplies and demand, and it is obvious
that this deficit has increased over the past five years.
</p>
<p> If we suppose an increase of .5 percent a year in the area of
land put under irrigation, which is less than what can be
projected in light of the large increase in the population,
then irrigation needs alone will increase from 80 to 160
billion cubic meters a year until the year 2000. The deficit
will increase in the countries situated on the African continent
in particular because of their climatic and development
situations. This deficit can be overcome only by the development
and exploitation of underground reserves in the Arabian Desert,
judicious use of water, the use of advanced technological
methods, the recycling of drainage water, and the use of
technological methods in the field of research on the
extraction of underground water, as well as the use of advanced
means to desalinate sea water.
</p>
<p> Moreover, the unification of efforts to discover unstudied
areas, and working to evaluate the quality and quantity of the
underground reserves ought to result from a comprehensive
visualization of the geologic structure and hydrologic
situation, as well as lead to better exploitation of water
resources. It should be mentioned that laying down a unified
policy on the exploitation of underground reserves based in
scientific planning that relies on confirmed data will help to
close the deficit in the water balance.
</p>
<p> A review of the current methods of dealing with surface
water resources, such as rivers and rain, or underground water,
such as the water reserves in the Arab nation, will result in
reduction the deficit previously referred to.
</p>
<p> All this requires that scientific programs be established
immediately to decisively confront this problem, especially
since the rivers upon which the Arab world primarily depends
arise outside the Arab nation, such as the Nile, the Euphrates,
the Tigris, the Jordan, the Shebeli, and the Juba. This leads us
to the painful fact--the world conflict which radically
changed its map during the past few months.
</p>
<p> We should mention what Israel is doing in the way of
repeated attempts to appropriate the greatest share of the
supply of the Jordan, Hasbani, and Litani Rivers, and that it
is busy implementing projects for storing water resources at the
expense of the share of the Arab countries, which affects the
development of these states, and enables Israel to expand in
the occupied Arab land and build settlements to settle
immigrating Jews.
</p>
<p> The Arab League must give attention to protecting water
resources, which would ensure real development of the Arab
countries through which these rivers flow.
</p>
</body>
</article>
</text>