@fao rne Fawzi Karajeh, senior water resources officer at the Regional Office for the Near East and North Africa (NENA) of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

Alexandria, August 25, 2016: Dr Fawzi Karajeh, senior water resources officer at the Regional Office for the Near East and North Africa (NENA) of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), warned against the growing regional problem of water scarcity, which could create serious challenges to the agricultural sector, directly affecting food security and rural economies.

Karajeh informed the 12th International Dryland Development Conference, hosted by Bibliotheca Alexandrina, that the Near East and North Africa Water Scarcity Initiative, adopted by the FAO in cooperation with the League of Arab States, sets a well-defined framework for joint regional action. Under this structure, every state shoulders its own responsibly of protecting its water resources and contribute to the collective efforts of tackling water scarcity impacting the entire region.

He said fresh water resources in the NENA region are among the lowest in the world, and per capita water use dropped 60 percent in the past four decades. He added that indicators show that per capita water share is expected to further decline by 50 percent by 2050 from its current value.

Due to worsening climate change, he said, extreme weather conditions are witnessed in the region, speeding up flooding and creating severe droughts in several NENA countries. These are two sides of the same phenomenon, directly caused by climate change.

In order to support countries facing water scarcity challenges, the FAO launched the Near East and North Africa Water Scarcity Initiative in 2013. The goal is to help member states identify their water and irrigation priorities through an innovative approach that prioritises the achievement of optimal efficiency in terms of costs of available food supply options.

On Egypt, Karajeh highlighted several good initiatives implemented by the FAO, the government and a number of partners. Under these initiatives, solar-powered water and irrigation technologies were used in agricultural projects, achieving high water-use efficiency without affecting agricultural productivity. Other initiatives included a programme to monitor and assess the impact of climate change on the production of strategic crops, and suggest solutions.

Karajeh said the FAO encourages countries to adopt strategic options for producing crops, duly considering the expected rise in temperatures, and develop supply chain/production management to ensure food security. He added that Arab integration is unavoidable because it is one of the effective solutions to leverage the geological diversity of soil and fertility, thus producing all types of crops under optimal growing conditions.

The senior FAO officer called for combating sea water intrusion as well as salinity, which affects soil, by selecting salt tolerant crops and best field practice measures. He stressed the important role of research centres in finding sustainable scientific solutions.

In a press gathering on the sidelines of the conference, Karajeh said that in the worst-case scenario, the water flow of the Nile River might drop due to climate change and the construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, creating a deficit of eight billion cubic metres of water. He added that the Egyptian government is serious in overcoming this problem and compensating the water shortage, if it occurs, through unconventional solutions. The governments of Egypt, Sudan, and South Sudan are currently coordinating efforts to improve the water flow and control water loss, waste, and leaks, he said.

Negotiations between Egypt and Ethiopia should lead to agreement on the period of storing water behind the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam in order to avoid harming Egypt’s rights during the first years of filling the reservoir, Karajeh said.

He underlined the need for water conservation and efficiency improvement, saying: “Egypt took good steps over the past years to improve water-use efficiency, but there is room for maximising the benefits and enhancing water productivity and water use efficiency. Efficient water management can save 30 percent of irrigation water.” He noted that the per capita water share in Egypt is estimated at 600 cubic meters -- 10 percent less than the international rate.

Meanwhile, the water expert said the Nile Delta will not vanish due to climate change as rumoured, adding that “such scientific assumptions are based on rough assumptions and boundary conditions.” The most affected areas are located near the city of Port Said, Karajeh said. The problem, he added, can be solved through building agricultural wastewater treatment systems to lower the levels of saline water in agricultural land, and minimising seawater intrusion into the Nile Delta by building hydraulic barriers using non-conventional water such as reclaimed water and treated waste water in coastal areas to stop the advance of salinity caused by groundwater overuse and sea level rise, as a result of climate change.

FAO Submits Technical Study on 1.5-Million-Acre Project to Egypt

On Egypt-FAO cooperation, Karajeh said that at a recent meeting between the Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El Sisi and FAO Director General Jose Graziano da Silva, the two sides agreed to task a group of FAO experts with conducting technical studies on the 1.5-Million-Acre project. A committee of soil, water, energy, flora, fisheries and agriculture investment experts was formed and held a series of meetings in Egypt before submitting its official report to Egypt’s ambassador at FAO around a month ago.

This, Karajeh said, was not the first time the FAO cooperated with Egypt, adding that the FAO has provided Cairo with a technical study on the Aswan High Dam, a general plan for the Nobaria land project, and studies on the impact of climate change on coastal areas. Also, the FAO and Egypt have implemented projects on the use of renewables in agriculture and addressing nutritional deficiencies in a number of governorates.  

 Arab World Imports 235 Million Tonnes of Food Annually

Karajeh said that due to water scarcity, the Arab world cannot achieve food self-sufficiency. He described the water situation as critical, with the Arab world importing about 235 million tonnes of food annually, requiring at least 235 billion cubic meters of water. This quantity is not currently available due to the limited water resources in the region. He noted that the region also has the world's highest population growth rate, as its current population of 400 million is projected to reach 600 million by 2050.

"The Arab world needs to triple its current food production, but this is difficult to achieve because 65 percent of the water currently used in the Arab world originates outside this region and because the renewable water resources there are limited, while most groundwater resources are being depleted, and are prone to salinization," he said.   

 Unconventional Resources Must Be Used to Address Water Scarcity Challenges in Arab World

 Karajeh cited several challenges created by water scarcity in the Arab world, notably scarce water supplies from conventional resources such as rainfall and groundwater. For example, rainfall precipitation rate in Egypt does not exceed 70 mm annually and in Saudi Arabia 90 mm. Another challenge, he said, is the small-scale farming, with farms ranging between 1.5 and 2 acres. He said this necessities better coordinated enabling policies and tailored demand-based water management options.

He added: "The high purchase power and high living standards in the Arab world have come to pose another challenge to the available quantity of food and the percentage of food loss. This is a waste of resources. There is also the poor cooperation among stakeholders and the opposition to unconventional water resources such as the failure to accept food grown using treated wastewater, as well as reliance on conventional resources like groundwater."

He said the Arab world has indeed started to use up groundwater reserves, pointing out that groundwater levels in most regional countries have dropped. In Jordan, for example, the level dropped to 2 meters annually and in Yemen’s Sanaa Basin, which supports the livelihood of  around 3 million people with water, to 6 meters annually.

He stressed the need for efficient water management by controlling supply and demand, noting that the Arab world is currently focused only on supply management. He also stressed the need to use agricultural guidance on the use of water for agriculture, saying this could increase the productivity of one acre by up to 30 percent. He also noted the importance of reducing food waste, saying that 15-20 percent of agricultural production is wasted due to inefficient harvest and poor transportation and storage methods.

World Needs 60% Food Production Increase by 2050

On the global challenges of water scarcity, Karajeh said the world needs a 60-percent increase in food production by 2050 due to the projected population growth, as world population is expected to increase to 9 billion by that year. The increased demand for food will require that 300,000 billion cubic meters of water for agriculture be added to the currently used amount of 2,600,000 billion cubic meters. He said that these future needs are available, provided there is sustainable management and good governance.