Categories: Need to know

Arab countries face severe water shortage by 2015

Rapid population growth and climate change could create a crisis

by macleans.ca on Thursday, November 4, 2010 1:52pm - 0 Comments

As early as 2015, a new report by the Arab Forum for Environment and Development suggests, the oil-rich Arab world may tip into severe water scarcity. By then, it’s expected Arabs will have less than 500 cubic metres of water a year per capita to survive on, which is less than a tenth of the global average of more than 6,000 cubic metres per capita. Rapid population growth will stress water resources even further. According to UN projections, the population in Arab nations, which now numbers almost 360 million, will reach nearly 600 million by 2050. Climate change is also expected to aggravate matters. By the end of this century, Arab countries may experience a 25 per cent drop in precipitation and a 25 per cent increase in evaporation rates. “As a result, rain-fed agriculture will be threatened, with average yields estimated to decline by 20 per cent,” the report says. Of the 19 most water-scarce countries in the world, 13 are Arab nations.

Ottawa Citizen

Olivier

This is going to make Steyn go NUTS!

The muslims willbe even more dangerous when they run out of water!
wlpc

I wonder how much we'll charge them for water. Maybe we can trade them straight across–a barrel of oil for a barrel of water! They ship the oil here in barrels and we send water back in those same barrels.
http://stumblingabordeaux.blogspot.com Pato31

"But… But… Climate Change, Global Warming… it's all just a… huge… a huge hoax! There's… there's no such thing!"

Yes let's keep pretending – sigh.
citizen_CA

I think 3 barrels of oil for 1/2 a barrel of water sounds about right.
Ariadne

They can always trade their oil with water and food, hopefully they will learn how to trade well instead of using blackmails.

Eddie

i wish that could be but it will never happen! the west depends way too much on oil and our pollys are way too soft. there will be negotiations, yes, but we will still be at the giving end of the deal. till we break out of the oil trap, we are vulnerable to blackmailing.

Ariadne

We might be inconvenience a lot without oil, but we will survive, however, people can't live without food and water, especially in the desert. Trade negotiators just have to be creative and cunning enough to use this at our advantage.

Abdul

we have the Oil and we have the Water as well :) and it will be like that for ever….. we are Arabic muslim and others . we live in our rich countries with our money and if the water runs out we don't need to buy water from your countries because we will buy your countries itself… thank you