Investing in water around the Mena region

Water availability per person per year has declined sharply over the last 50 years and is today a tenth of the average global water availability.

There is a looming water crisis that is beginning to manifest itself in very serious ways across North Africa and the Middle East (Mena) regions. The general public seems oblivious to the threat and national ministries often seem to be looking the other way, but the data is there now: According to Nasa, we are experiencing the worst drought in 900 years as mentioned by Princess Sumaya of Jordan at the opening of the first Amwaj (‘waves’ in Arabic) forum in Amman on 28-29 November about advancing sustainability and entrepreneurship around the Mena region.

The Mena region is the most water-scarce region in the world. Water availability per person per year has declined sharply over the last 50 years and is today a tenth of the average global water availability. In Jordan, water availability declined from 3,600 cubic metres per person/year in 1946 to 128 cubic metres today.

This is a drastic and worrying decline and yet many people in the Mena region remain unaware of the water crisis — of its causes, its long-term impacts and why certain viable solutions are not being implemented. What are some of the solutions?

Read the full article by Stuart Reigeluth via Gulf News.

[Photo by Sushicircus | Flickr]