Water scarcity is one of the biggest challenges facing the Middle East region. Although the region is home to 6.3 per cent of the world’s population, it only has 1.4 per cent of the world’s renewable fresh water.
Two decades ago, water scarcity problem was confined to some Arab countries in North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula because of the vast desert expanses and limited sources of fresh water. However, the problem began to affect even countries that enjoy permanent water resources because of the running of rivers through their lands such as Egypt and Iraq.
Along with the rising demand for water due to the increase of population, climate change, and the construction of dams on water courses, there is a growing concern over an acute water scarcity dilemma that could affect development in the two countries and other Arab states.
Iraq has been suffering from water shortage problem because of climate change, declining rainfall, and rising temperatures, in addition to the decline in the water level of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers since 2003, as a result of the policies adopted by Turkey and Iran to change the paths of the tributaries and construct giant
dams.
Meanwhile, Egypt’s main problem lies in the limited quota of the Nile River versus the growing population and urbanisation process as well as the demand for building new communities, industrial projects and expansion of the cultivated land to ensure food security for the growing population.
Therefore, Egypt has started a comprehensive strategy to make the utmost utilisation of its water resources and rationalise water consumption, especially in the agricultural sector by introducing a modern irrigation system, purifying canals, and building giant waste water treatment plants. Egypt’s success in this field encouraged many countries including Iraq to request Egypt’s assistance to implement a similar strategy to overcome the water shortage problem.
Last year, Minister of Irrigation Mohamed Abdul Atti visited Iraq where he agreed with his Iraqi counterpart on means to enhance bilateral co-operation to optimise the utilisation of their limited water resources.
This week, Minister Abdul Atti held a meeting with senior officials at his ministry to discuss a project to build wastewater treatment plant in Iraq with a treatment capacity of five million m3/d.
The proposed plant would help Iraq to overcome the water shortage in the three Iraqi govern orates of El-Nasiriyah, El-Diwaniya, and Basra on the Euphrates River, which saw a scary drop in its level over the last few years.
This project should be the nucleus of more co-operation between the two countries to make the best management of their water resources and secure the water needs of the present and coming generations.
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