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Water in the Middle East is a precious commodity. But with golf courses, fountains and water parks littered across the region, it’s easy to forget. Water scarcity is a scantly discussed subject, despite its importance, which leads to the question: are we burying our heads in the sand, or are we just badly informed?

Countries in the MENA region rely heavily on external water resources. Bahrain, Egypt and Kuwait all have a dependency ratio higher than 95%. The region’s climate means fresh water availability is low. Average rainfall ranges from 70-130mm and this, together with a high rate of evaporation, leaves very little water to waste.

Low rainfall and rapid evaporation have been present in this region almost literally from the start of time; but it is population growth and rapid urbanisation that has really put the pressure on water resources. The population growth rate in the UAE alone was 3.8% as of last year, a figure only beaten by the Maldives. Urbanisation is clear to see in cities such as Dubai, Riyadh and Doha, which have seen rapid growth in the recent past, and continue to grow.

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Yousrey Elsharkawi, food security expert, Dubai Ministry of Environmental and Water, spoke about the need for education in light of these facts.

“We have a mix of cultures so we need a very high quality awareness of water scarcity,” he said. “We see this problem in water security; every day we have a conference, we have a meeting, we wear a nice tie, we have very nice presentations, there is very nice expertise but we are very far [from our goals].”

Educating children in the UAE about water scarcity is made all the harder when they see the world’s largest water fountain being unveiled outside the Burj Dubai. These types of contradictions do not help the cause. As the developments like the Burj Dubai become occupied, more water is going to be needed and at the same time, more is being wasted. It seems as the buildings have gone up, so has the ignorance of water scarcity.

Policy makers in the Middle East have come under fire for not making water scarcity a higher priority in the past.

Christian Koch, director of international studies at the Gulf Research Centre (GRC) put forward a case for an integrated approach.

“One of the philosophies that we try and follow at the GRC is that any of the policies should bring together a coalition that has the academic specialists, government policy officials, the private sector of business and the media,” he said.

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