|
Potential for Water Demand Management in the Arab Region
Khaled Abu-Zeid , Amr Abdel-Megeed , Omar Elbadawy
Centre for Environment & Development for the Arab Region & Europe (CEDARE)
Abstract
Water resources scarcity, accessibility, and environmental degradation are the major challenges facing most of the Arab countries.
The current population of about 284 million in the Arab Region is expected to reach 472 million people by year 2025. This poses great stresses on satisfying water demand for irrigation, domestic, and industrial uses. In the Arab Region, the average annual per capita water share of renewable water resources is expected to decrease 65% by year 2025.
Currently, in the Arab region, there are about 54 million people with no access to safe drinking water, and about 79 million people with no access to proper sanitation. To achieve the Millennium Development Goals on water in the Arab region by year 2015, it is required to provide safe drinking access to about 83 million people and to provide proper sanitation to about 96 million people, which will need investments of about 17.5 billion Euros.
Realizing the scarcity of water and the inaccessibility to water services in many parts of the Arab region, in addition to the large amount of investments needed in the water sector, Water Demand Management (WDM) will play a very important role in development in the Arab region. This paper presents water demand management methods in the different water sectors. The paper estimates the current annual potential for water savings due to WDM in the Arab region at 20 Billion Cubic Meters (BCM) per year in the irrigation, domestic, and industrial sectors. The paper also estimates the potential for wastewater reuse and recycling of domestic and industrial water in the Arab region at 12 BCM/year, which is considered an alternative non-conventional water resource that will indirectly contribute to WDM. |