Solutions to Water Challenges in MENA Region

MENA region is the most water scarce region in the world. The region is home to about 6.3% of world’s population, but has access to measly 1.4% of the world’s renewable freshwater. The region faces a dramatic increase in water demands due to rapid population growth, urbanization tendency, higher living standards, and an agricultural policy, which emphasizes expanding production in order to feed the growing population. Continued water scarcities will affect the social and economic potential of the region, increase the land vulnerability to salinization and desertification, and raise the risk of political conflicts around the limited water available and increasing demand. Groundwater is a hidden problem, since many countries extract more than it is being recharged. Water quality degradation through pollution and salinization are important factors affecting water availability in the region. In recent years, flash floods occurred by extreme weather events, their occurrence was highly random, and the associated problems are expected to increase in the near future due to climate change. Finding solutions to these challenging problems requires close collaboration between scientists – established as well as young ones - practitioners, and stakeholders from governmental and public organizations. The workshop will focus on multidisciplinary approaches to water challenges and their solutions with special interest on functions and limitations under various land-use systems and climatic conditions, remote sensing applications in water sciences, and latest technological developments for use and management of water in terms of sustainable water management.