The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Region is one of the most water stressed regions in the world. Due to increasing population and projected climate change impacts, MENA's annual water demand gap is projected to grow five-fold by 2050, from today’s 42 Km3 to 200 km3 by 2050.
Despite its extreme scarcity, water is managed poorly. Inefficiencies are common in the agriculture, municipal and industrial systems; and many utilities are financially unsustainable. As a result, countries overexploit their fossil aquifers—and use desalination by fossil fuel-to meet the water demand gap. Desalination is costly, energy intensive and has environmental impacts. Overexploitation of fossil aquifers is not sustainable. Neither is the use of fossil fuel for desalination to meet the growing water gap.
This book outlines the challenges in terms of water (and also in terms of energy) that countries in the region face and analyzes the scope of available options to address the growing water gap. It estimates MENA’s water gap today and into the future—until 2050, and presents a methodology to prioritize options to bridge the water gap, using the ‘marginal cost of water' approach. The book also assesses the viability of renewable energy desalination as an important option to close the Region’s water gap.
See publication page: http://publications.worldbank.org/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=0&products_id=24207
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