The mission of the Irrigation and Water Resources Department is to promote the efficient use of water resources in agriculture, to enhance water protection and conservation and to achieve food security, sustainable agriculture and rural development.

The shortage of water is one of the crucial issues facing the Near East Region and is likely to be exacerbated in the future as a result of population growth, climate change and the degradation of water resources quality. Most of the renewable water resources of the region are already being used, essentially for agriculture; and what remains can only be harnessed at high, or at times prohibitive, costs. Competition from other sectors is likely to further reduce the share of agriculture in the limited water resources.

The programme and priorities are dictated by the needs of the Near East Region and FAO policy and concerns, and aim at enhancing food production and food security, through the increasing crop production per unit of water use, while ensuring the quantitative sustainability of renewable water resources and their protection from quality degradation.

The activities are organized into medium-term, bi-annual, and annual progammes and can be classified into the following categories:

·         Water resources development,

·         Irrigation expansion and management

·         Improvement of water use efficiency

·         Drought mitigation

·         Water quality control and environmental protection.

Irrigation and Water Resources development and sustainable use require a high level of technical and managerial skills and professionalism. Member states are supported in this regard in the process of programme and project development and formulation as well as in their implementation, review and evaluation. This is achieved through technical assistance and backstopping and the provision of Consultants and Experts according to needs.

From the technical standpoint, the Water Resources and Irrigation Department of RNE is a decentralized unit of the 'Water Resources Development and Management Service' (AGLW) in FAO Headquarters in Rome. As part of AGLW, the Department provides technical assistance in the following areas:

·  Assessment of national irrigation potential;

·  Contribution to global freshwater assessment;

·  introduction of efficient water-use technologies;

·  improvement of irrigation management practices;

·  reorganization of irrigation institutions;

·  water quality and pollution control

As part of  FAO's efforts to establish a global information system for agriculture and rural development known as AQUASTAT, FAO-RNE has recently completed a study of the state of irrigation and agricultural water use in the countries of the Region. The objectives of this programme, involving twenty-nine countries, are to collect and present data on rural water use. The survey showed that while the Near East covers 14 percent of the total area of the world and contains 10 percent of its population; its water resources constitute only about 2 percent of the total renewable water resources of the world. For 16 of the 29 countries surveyed, internal renewable water resources per inhabitant are below the level of 500 m3/year, which is considered as "absolute water scarcity".

Scarcity of water and the reliability of its supply are major constraints for agricultural development in the Near East, where 91 percent of the water is used for agriculture. How water is managed for agriculture and rural development defines many factors that affect the global water supply, and any improvement in agricultural water use efficiency will have a significant impact on the availability of water. Given the high costs of new irrigation development, linked with the scarcity of water resources, the emphasis in the future will be on making efficient use of water for irrigation. The main source of water for irrigation is surface water. The large contribution of surface water in Northeastern Africa and the Near East reflects the fact that the hydrology of these areas is dominated by large rivers. Groundwater is more important in the Arabian Peninsula, where there are no important rivers, and its overuse has become a major problem."

Credibility of information is a basic factor in the decision-making process of water allocation and management in this resource-poor area of the world. Therefore, there is an urgent need to continuously compile and update data related to development and conservation of water resources in the Region. FAO-RNE does this by:

§          Regularly updating the AQUASTAT database,

§         Developing a module of AQUASTAT for use by regional professionals in the field of water resources and irrigation,

§         Collaborating with other regional institutions in the exchange of data for the adoption and dissemination of standards, agreed criteria, and definitions used in computing water resources and water-use indicators.

_______________________________________________________

For Land and Water Development Publications please click here