The Water Crisis in the Middle East
For many living in the developed world, a day spent thinking about where their next glass of water will be coming from is an oddity. Although many countries in Europe suffer from issues concerning water scarcity, these are more exceptions to the rule. The issue of water stress and scarcity primarily concerns the developing world, especially the Middle East and North Africa, where access to potable drinking water (or any water at all for that matter) is extremely limited. For instance, while 8% of France and 10% of the Netherlands reside in water-scarce areas, more than 49% of Egypt and 63% of Saudi Arabia lack this essential resource, due to a variety of factors both natural and man-made. Climate change aside, the environment of the Middle East—hot, arid, and seldom rainy—makes for a harsh lifestyle devoid of water. More importantly though is the overuse of water for agricultural purposes. Close to 85% of the region’s water is allocated for irrigation, and often inefficiently. Even wealthier Arab countries find themselves confronted with this issue. As awe-inspiring as the infrastructural marvels of Dubai may appear; even the UAE is close to the breaking point, with groundwater scarcity and water reuse mismanagement creating a deadly storm on the horizon. Combining these aforementioned points with rising populations and increasing water sanitation costs, it is no wonder that so many suffer from this emergency.
Understandably, the question must be asked: How can the governments of these countries provide enough water for the needs and wants of their populations? As the water crisis of the Middle East has become increasingly dire, countries have developed a slew of solutions to the problem, along with mixed results. Initiative include repairing piping infrastructure and water trading, and many countries have focused on sequential water management, which involves sanitizing wastewater for industrial or domestic purposes. Even still, the numbers don’t lie; swaths of the Middle East rely on insufficient water resources. While water reserves continue to plunge and water quality issues constantly spring up, water conflicts—armed and otherwise—are on the horizon.
The answer to this devastating issue lies with Israel’s success. Reeling from its water crisis of the late-2000s, Israel has developed techniques in desalination, water treatment, and drip-irrigation that may aid the entire region. How is it that a country which once teetered on the brink of full-scale collapse from water shortages is now the only country which doesn’t suffer from acute water shortages? And how can we apply these lessons of success in confronting the water crisis of the region as a whole?
What is Desalination?
Before jumping into the specifics, it is important to identify what exactly “desalination” means and what constructing desalination plants actually entails. As the word implies, desalination involves the removal of salt (as well as other minerals and potential inorganic and organic contaminants) from water to make it potable. Desalinated water is most often processed from seawater, although desalination sites might be erected as salt interception schemes (SIS) along irrigation lines to desalinate agricultural runoff or as temporary infrastructure to desalinate waterways along desertified areas. Likewise, the purpose of the desalinated water can vary by context. While a majority of desalination plants are used for drinking water or auxilliary uses (showering, dishwashing, latrines, etc.), the aforementioned salt interception schemes are used to desalinate water to be piped back into natural rivers and waterways as “blue water” for ecological purposes. After all, freshwater fish need water too.
Two primary desalination methods exist: reverse osmosis and thermal distillation. The former works on the science of “water equalization”, whereby the natural properties of water demand equal volumes of water in two separate spaces if divided by a semi-permeable membrane. In layman’s terms: A container is divided in two by a wall of microscopic netting, one half empty and the other half with water. The netting selectively allows water to pass through while leaving salt, minerals, and other contaminants behind. In the case of reverse osmosis, the benefit is its increased thoroughness, especially in separating organic contaminants from the water. Unfortunately, the process remains extremely expensive and energy-intensive—leaving reverse osmosis a strategy that has popularized in Europe and the United States rather than elsewhere in the world.
As for thermal distillation, one can derive the basic premise from the word as well. Rapidly heated water produces steam, which in turn—having separated the water from the leftover compounds—can be recondensed into distilled water for drinking or other various uses. Thermal desalination has become popular in the greater Middle East and North Africa, mostly for the lower energy requirements and the simplicity of design. Admittedly, in contrast to other desalination plants in the area, a majority of Israeli sites utilize reverse osmosis technology, which may not be appropriate for the bulk of Middle Eastern countries which suffer from debt and frequent budget misallocations. However, by taking advanatage of the simplicity and the lower energy requirement associated with thermal desalination technology, it is possible for the region to harness the same wealth of water that Israel enjoys.
Timeline of the Water Crisis in Israel
Not so long ago, Israel itself was another unfortunate example of the rampant water crisis afflicting the Middle East. Historically, Israel’s water was provided from a variety of sources like groundwater spots, natural bodies of water like the Sea of Galilee and Lake Kinneret, and wastewater reuse systems. Further sources, like personal wells and runoff from Mount Camel, provide Israelis with the water they need on a day-to-day basis. Israel’s water politics are heavily influenced by its 1959 Water Law, which designated water as a national public good. This not only confirmed the government’s responsibility in providing safe water to all citizens of Israel, but also the government’s monopoly of power concerning the handling and allocation of water.
At the turn of the 21st century, Israel was in the midst of one of the greatest droughts the country had seen since its founding (lasting from 1998-2002). Israel’s government acknowledged the problem by encouraging water conservation, but continued to distribute water arbitrarily to industry, pollute waterways, and over-sanitize non-drinking water. Much of this misallocation can be attributed to Mekorot: the nationalized water company of Israel. In the absence of competition, Mekorot remained a poorly-managed government monopoly which substantially undercut the price of water to levels that did not meet operation costs. Further mismanagement and lack of attention to the growing crisis from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development meant that the crisis only worsened. Attempts were made to compensate with water conservation efforts; installation of low-flow toilets and showerheads and investment into innovative water treatment systems. Israeli officials even advised their constituents to take “zionist showers”, or shared family showers. Still, the nation was struggling more than it ever had in providing adequate water.
It was not until 2005 that the government finally built its salvation: the Ashkelon desalination plant. Then-providing over 101 million cubic meters of water to the state of Israel, the Ashkelon plant’s success transformed the state of the Israeli water crisis. Since then, Israel has constructed five more desalination plants, with a bid for a seventh plant in northern Israel to provide >100 million more cubic meters of water. Overall, more than 585 million cubic meters of water are provided by desalination plants in Israel. Today, desalination is an essential part of day-to-day life for a near-majority of Israelis, with 35% of Israel having received their water through desalination channels in 2014, and a projected 70% to be drinking desalinated water by 2050.
Challenges to the Israeli Model
Of course, a solution which seems too good to be true is, quite often, simply that. Plenty of evidence exists to support desalination’s promise for the Middle East, but plenty also exists to point out the risks that come with feverishly constructing desalination plants. Two primary concerns lie with expanding desalination: cost and environmental impact.
With regard to the first, it cannot be overstated how expensive a desalination plan can often become. Projections vary, but according to a survey from the Texas Water Development Board, construction of a 2.5 million gallon per day plant (equivalent to ~100,000 cubic meters per day, less than half the daily production of Israel’s planned seventh desalination plant) would cost more than $32 million. Combine this with supply-chain problems, corruption, and a host of other barriers, and it is little wonder why countries in the Middle East are so unwilling to throw money at a problem which could yield very little. Low returns on desalinated water further dissuade most companies or national agencies even willing to look into desalination.
As for environmental impact, this itself can be further broken down into concern over the power source and the ramifications for sea life because of wastewater. Powering desalination plants can be a heavy undertaking—estimates for the carbon output of Australia’s construction of desalination plants alone in 2015 are around 1,200 kt of carbon dioxide, a number which skyrockets when accounting for year-by-year emissions once the plant goes into operation. Effects on marine life also remain a concern as the amount of wastewater pumped back into the environment increases. Desalination is not a zero-waste process; the contents removed from the salinated water have to go somewhere, which very often means right back into the ocean. Dozens of desalination sites, all pumping gallons of warm, brackish water back into the coastal waterways, could seal the fate of innumerable species of sealife.
All of this is certainly a concern, and few reasonable people would argue that these issues should be ignored in favor of securing freshwater for humans alone. Much of humanity’s mission today involves securing the environment for future generations and not plunging them into unpayable debt. But there are alternatives; desalination sites can easily be powered via renewable energy sources like solar or geothermal power. Studies have shown the positive yields from reverse osmosis plants coupled with renewable energy sources, not only in reducing carbon outputs but in reducing future energy costs too. Additionally, as new processes develop, the outlook on brine treatement techniques has become optimistic. Instead of simply pumping wastewater directly back into the environment, water treatment can further purify water bound for the sea and dispose of contaminants elsewhere (repurposing salt and minerals, etc.).
The Future of Water in the Middle East
At this very moment, more than 66 million people in the Middle East lack basic sanitation. Of the 17 most water-stressed countries in the world, 11 of them lie in the Middle East and North Africa. Water provided a catalyst for conflict when ISIS threatened to take over the entire region (such as when the Islamic State captured the Taqba Dam in Iraq in 2013 which was only reclaimed in 2017) and it continues to provide a spark for political disputes and military clashes alike. In Yemen, where potable water stores have reached a mere 198 cubic meters per capita, widespread water shortage contributes heavily to the famine and in-fighting amongst rebel groups. In northeastern Africa, Ethiopia’s construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam—which would greatly restrict the already-lessening upstream flow of the Nile which provides for Egypt’s and Sudan’s agro-economies—threatens to spark war between these countries and others upstream. As has become increasingly evident, awareness campaigns and changes to individual consumption are not enough. Macro-problems demand macro-solutions, and desalination could be just the answer the Middle East is looking for.
Some scholars have suggested promoting the synergystic relationship between water and other resources like food and energy (hydroelectricity). Part of the impasse with politicians may be the fact that water may be a necessity, but it’s difficult to profit off of in our existing economic system. If we then expand water’s necessity to include agricultural production and hydropower production, we could expand the interest in powerful groups to secure wider access to water resources.
The reality is that increasing access to water in the Middle East will involve more than internal solutions; a problem that transcends borders such as this demands collaboration and diplomacy between states. Arab-Israeli hydropolitics are complicated, and it’s unfortunately unlikely that the inevitable catastrophe that would come with remaining politically-unilateral would mean Arabs and Israelis finally seeing each other as more than enemies. Perhaps there will come a day when people of Muslim and Jewish faith can live harmoniously in their respective homelands, and perhaps the water crisis will not be that watershed event. But the present and growing problem does provide an opportunity for interstate relations that rises above differences in identity or ideology. We cannot continue to ignore the suffering of those experiencing this crisis, just as we cannot continue to ignore the opportunity that this creates for diplomacy and greater peace in the Middle East.