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Contributions from
the Column
InWEnt Forum
Only reforms will
safeguard supply
Iraq needs support
for reconstructing human capital
Gates serve
German campaign for the Millennium Goals
8-9/2005 |
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[ Water ]
Only reforms will
safeguard supply
Water is becoming an increasingly scarce commodity in many areas of the world. According to experts, the situation is particularly severe in the Middle East and North Africa. They see the solution in water sector reforms and integrated resource management. Various complementary measures should be introduced, depending on the specific problems prevailing in any given region. InWEnt is contributing to the cause by making professional training available.
[ By Alexandra Pres ]
North Africa and the Middle East are two of the driest areas on Earth. The five per cent of the world’s population who live there have access to only one per cent of the fresh water. According to experts, the average annual per capita availability of fresh water in the region is about 1,200 cubic metres. This compares with 2,286 cubic metres in Germany. Also, existing water resources are very unequally distributed throughout the Middle East: while each person in Iran, on average, has access to about 1,800 cubic metres per annum, in Yemen this figure is only 125 cubic metres. And the situation continues to deteriorate. Experts estimate a maximum average per capita availability of 500 cubic metres in 2025.
The example of Jordan, one of the world’s most arid countries, shows how precarious the situation really is. Renewable water resources here amount to 140 cubic metres per capita per annum. Today’s level of consumption is already approximately 20 per cent higher. For this reason, part of the population of the capital city Amman has only limited access to drinking water.
The situation is exacerbated by several factors, including dramatic population growth, the development of urban centres far from available sources of water, unsolved management and maintenance problems, ailing networks and widespread inefficient use in agriculture. An effective water management system would close the gap between supply and demand. Training programmes could support the goal of establishing such a system. The programmes should take the various dimensions of water usage and associated interests into account, and should also address the issue of cause and effect. InWEnt has developed a “construction kit” containing the necessary tools for such a training programme. Its purpose is to help responsible institutions to operate more professionally, and to encourage the formation of national and regional networks. The programme’s target groups are young executives and senior experts in Egypt, Algeria, Yemen, Jordan, Morocco, Palestine, Tunisia and Syria.
Water was originally perceived as nature’s most precious gift. The situation in the Middle East and North Africa today clearly shows how much has changed since then. Scarcity hat turned this priceless resource into an issue of political urgency. Without water it is impossible to alleviate poverty or develop economies. Not only that, water – or the lack of it – can have a major influence on the stability or instability of entire nations and regions. Multilateral and bilateral initiatives aimed at sustainable use of the resource are urgently needed in order to counteract this vulnerability. For this to happen, technology and institutions for better water management must be put into place. An appropriate regulatory policy must also be set up to encourage conservative use. Furthermore, the shortage of water should be the subject of a full economic appraisal. In this way the font of life will become an economic commodity.
The stress of water scarcity has a domino effect on life in the region: every action engenders a reaction, and political pressure and conflict soon follow. The signs can already be seen among different user groups. For instance, the population of Yemen is already exploiting its ground water to excess. As a result, each year less water is available and the problem becomes more critical; the finiteness of the resource is becoming increasingly apparent. About 80 per cent of the available water is utilised for agriculture, often using antiquated, wasteful irrigation methods and cultivating water-intensive crops. On the other hand, only 32 per cent of the urban and 21 per cent of the rural population have access to safe drinking water.
Each new well has a potentially negative impact on the neighbour’s water supply, and can be the cause of rivalry within the community. Water becomes a weapon which people wield to enforce their own political interests. To tackle the conflict at its source, Yemen is adopting a national water strategy. It is addressing the complexity of the issue by taking into account all the players in the water sector, and all their different interests. The Water Ministry and the Ministry of Agriculture are coordinating the development strategy and its implementation, making allowances for the interests of all subordinate authorities at both the national and local level. In the same way representatives from the world of science as well as civil society are being included in the process.
Those responsible face the challenge of radically changing their water management. Doing so is the only way to prevent the problem from worsening. Over-utilisation of groundwater sources, with a consequent deterioration in water quality and increased salinity levels, must be prevented at all costs. The effects on the health of the population would be disastrous.
The case of water, in particular, highlights the limitations of a one-dimensional, centrally-controlled policy. One approach which shows promise of success, is for the different sub-sectors (water resources, rural and urban water supply and disposal, irrigation, industrial water usage) to develop mutual strategies with environmental representatives, the relevant ministries and their subordinate authorities. It is also necessary to enter into multi-stakeholder dialogue with civil society. Decentralised structures form the basis of a more efficient usage of this scarce resource. This ensures a closer proximity of the water resources and the consumers. Successful management can only be established if all relevant players are involved, and common goals are implemented within the framework of practice-oriented concepts and processes.
InWEnt’s training programme is supporting efforts to reform the water sectors in North Africa and the Middle East. Its “systemic construction kit” provides the necessary tools for more sustainable resource management. It contains six building blocks and 36 individual steps. These can be combined and adapted as needed to suit the local situation. The scope of the kit extends from a dialogue workshop with all players to long-term training for new executives. The training project is funded by the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development BMZ.
The training programme covers a wide range of specialist skills, and aims to improve the management of the various different water sectors. At the same time the participants learn how to pass on their new-found knowledge to their organisations, to spur on innovation and change. Cooperation at regional level helps to disseminate knowledge and promote discussion of current themes and trends. Regular forums support the formation of networks. Some of the measures are intended to raise the general level of awareness and to sensitise people to the complexities and scarcity of water. The programme is flexible enough to allow new components to be added at any time, such as training courses for a wider target group of engineers.
Water is a significant field of activity for German development cooperation. But a sustainable impact can only be achieved when all participants pull together in the same direction. This is why representatives of all the relevant institutions played their part in setting up the training programme. It was not easy to balance the various planning targets, budgets, tools and expertise. But the result was worth it.
Alexandra Pres
is project leader of “Global water resources” at InWEnt’s
Environment, Energy and Water Division.
alexandra.pres@inwent.org
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