Water scarcity is the “main agenda” that must be tackled in the Middle East and North Africa, or MENA, according to the World Bank’s vice president for the region, to avoid increasing political instability and conflict.Ferid Belhaj’s remarks Monday came after a World Bank report branded the issue “existential” and found water systems in the MENA region are being stretched “to the brink of collapse.” It predicted water levels in the region “will fall below the absolute water scarcity threshold of 500 cubic meters per person per year” and worsen with population growth, which is estimated to reach over 720 million people by 2050.

Decades of water management policy in the region have focused primarily on supply infrastructure, such as building dams, Belhaj told a panel hosted by the Washington-based Brookings Institution. World Bank research shows that there must be “total change” from that approach. Instead, he said, governments across the MENA region should shift toward “rationalization,” or making the most of the limited water available.

But countries in the MENA region have not addressed “critical efficiency and governance issues” needed to regulate water, according to the report, and there has been little attention to reducing losses and improving conservation. READ further from the source