CAIRO: Arab Water Council (AWC) said that the arid or semi-arid areas cover about 87 percent of the Arab region, 83 million people do not have access to clean drinking water and 96 million people do not have access to proper sanitation, while the agriculture uses 85 percent of water resources and 18 Arab countries suffer from water scarcity.
In a report issued on the sidelines of the regional workshop, currently being held in Cairo, on capacity- building, the use of space technology and remote sensing systems for improving water management in Arab region, the council said that the Arab region faces many problems related to water, exacerbated by mismanagement, mainly the water scarcity, drought, increasing of population growth rates, conflicts over shared water resources, climate conditions along with poverty, environmental pollution, degradation of ecosystems, economic imbalance, food supply shortage and gender inequality.
The report noted that 65 percent of surface waters originating outside the Arab borders, from some major rivers, such as Nile River and the Tigris-Euphrates and Senegal, warning that many countries would engage into political conflicts with other states due to their sharing water of common rivers and the absence of clear international agreements that governing water distribution.
QNA
