« Today, countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) are the most water scarce globally, with per capita freshwater supplies well below the water "poverty" line of 1,000 cubic meters per year. Arid conditions, low and variable rainfall and high rates of evaporation characterize the natural environment and compound the region's vulnerability to climate change. In Syria for example, a predicted rise in temperature, lack of rainfall and unpredictable weather could result in desertification of 60 percent of land area.
« Such factors, however, have neither discouraged ambitious agricultural development schemes nor dreams of food self-sufficiency and security—frequently at high economic and social costs.
« In Saudi Arabia, for example, agricultural development policies and irrigation practices adopted since the 1980s are linked with an estimated depletion of two thirds of the country's 'fossil' water supplies.
Morocco requires short term as a matter of urgent policy implementation additional cost effective water resources, that do not destroy ground water resources and salinity, at affordable non subsidized prices and not linked with coal oil gas power generation, with continuous rising costs of importation.
Julia Devlin continues: « New technologies for wastewater recycling are advancing rapidly, with significant potential for expanded use in MENA countries. In Libya, for example, only 7 percent of wastewater generated is treated and reused in agriculture and landscaping. Similarly, with declining costs and rapid growth in capacity, desalinated water is becoming ubiquitous, supplying more than half of the region's municipal water needs, to the point where countries such as the UAE are building the world's largest underground reservoir of desalinated water to safeguard supplies.