The Arab world is widely perceived as blessed with an embarrassment of riches: an abundance of oil (Saudi Arabia), one of the world’s highest per capita incomes (Qatar), and home to the world’s tallest luxury building (United Arab Emirates).
But it lacks one of the most finite resources necessary for human survival: water.
Scientists are now warning of "Peak Salt" - the point at which the Gulf becomes so salty that relying on it for fresh water stops being economically feasible.
“The average Arab citizen has eight times less access to renewable water than the average global citizen, and more than two thirds of surface water resources originate from outside the region,” says the U.N.Development Programme (UNDP) in a new study released this week.
Titled “Water Governance in the Arab Region: Managing Scarcity and Securing the Future,” the report warns that water scarcity in the region is fast reaching “alarming levels, with dire consequences to human development”.
The region accounts for five percent of the world’s more than seven billion people, and 10 percent of its area, but accounts for less than one percent of global water resources.
Its share of annual renewable water resources is also less than one percent, and it receives only 2.1 percent of average annual global precipitation.
BRWC
But it lacks one of the most finite resources necessary for human survival: water.
Scientists are now warning of "Peak Salt" - the point at which the Gulf becomes so salty that relying on it for fresh water stops being economically feasible.
“The average Arab citizen has eight times less access to renewable water than the average global citizen, and more than two thirds of surface water resources originate from outside the region,” says the U.N.Development Programme (UNDP) in a new study released this week.
Titled “Water Governance in the Arab Region: Managing Scarcity and Securing the Future,” the report warns that water scarcity in the region is fast reaching “alarming levels, with dire consequences to human development”.
The region accounts for five percent of the world’s more than seven billion people, and 10 percent of its area, but accounts for less than one percent of global water resources.
Its share of annual renewable water resources is also less than one percent, and it receives only 2.1 percent of average annual global precipitation.
BRWC
