Water Demand Management Is a Must in MENA Countries…But Is It Enough?

作者：Wael Mualla

摘要：The majority of Middle East and North Africa(MENA)countries suffer from chronic imbalance between available water supply and rising water demand.This imbalance is expected to worsen even further in the future as a result of sharp population growth,rapid economic development and climate change,unless major positive measures are implemented to augment water supply and manage water demand.The supply management approach,on its own,practiced by many countries in the region for so many years has so far demonstrated its inability to bridge the“water gap”between available water resources and rising water demand,as most traditional water resourced in almost all MENA countries have been exploited(or over exploited),and the cost of non-traditional water resources has become increasingly prohibitively high,apart from its environmental impact.Demand management is regarded by many water experts in the region as the answer or“panacea”for the water imbalance problem.But,is demand management approach alone able to solve the problem of water scarcity in the MENA region?In other words,if all demand management measures have been fully implemented,would there still be gaps between supply and demand that need to be filled with supply augmentation,andwill supply management options still need to be part of the solution?This paper tries to answer this question by reviewing several works in this domain,particularly,recent studies by the World Bank[9-11].It was concluded that,although water demand management measures should be given the first priority,especially,in the agricultural sector where it has the maximum impact,demand management on its own will not be able to bridge the“water gap”,and supply management options,such as sea water desalination and the re-use of treated wastewater,will be part of the solution.

发文机构：The Department of Civil Engineering

关键词：MENACOUNTRIESdemandmanagementWATERSCARCITYWATERgap

分类号： TP336[自动化与计算机技术—计算机系统结构][自动化与计算机技术—计算机科学与技术]