Rabat – Morocco is projected to face extremely high water stress by 2040, according to American think tank the World Resources Institute (WRI).
Morocco is among the 33 countries out of 167 expected to face extremely high water stress in 25 years’ time, says WRI researchers, who compiled the index by measuring competition for and depletion of surface water (lakes and rivers) each decade from 2010 to 2040.
According to the WRI’s Aqueduct Water Stress Projections, half of these 33 countries expected to face extremely high water stress are the in the Middle East and North Africa region.
In addition to Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Bahrain, Kuwait, the Palestinian territories, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Iraq, Turkey, Syria, Jordan and Oman are also projected to suffer from water availability problems in the foreseeable future.
WRI says that changes in climate, economic development, urbanization, and population growth are among the main reasons that will impact water resources in these countries.
“The good news is countries can take actions to reduce that stress and the risk associated with how they manage water resources,” Betsy Otto, director of the WRI’s Global Water Programme, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation, citing Singapore as an example in the use of innovative methods .
To face their water-related issues, the report projects that MENA countries will increasingly rely on recycling waste water, a technique to treat water and allow it to be used again by households. Other countries will rely on desalination to remove salt from sea and ground water.
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