Water in the Arab World

Will water soon be more precious in the dry Arab lands than oil? This set of 11 essays addresses the tightening water resource problems of the Arab region's 20 countries. The authors discuss themes of water conflict and provide detailed looks at four sub-areas, the Maghreb, the Nile countries, the Arabian Peninsula and the Mashrek. "Water in the Arab World" focuses on the necessary swing away from this century's technological drive to enlarge traditional surface and groundwater supplies and to expand irrigated farming for a rapidly growing and progressively more prosperous population. Rationalized patterns of using water within the national economies are needed, a transition often described as moving from supply to demand management. The change calls for intensified national legislative and planning efforts with regard to water supply, and for serious consideration of non-traditional ways to enhance supply such as conservation and desalination, and of pricing and market approaches to the allocation of an increasingly constrained supply.