Dr. Safwan Masri (left), Dean of Georgetown University-Qatar and Keynote Speaker Malcolm Gladwell during the 'Sustaining the Oasis: Envisioning the Future of Water Security' conference on November 13, 2023.
Doha, Qatar: Panellists have stressed the importance of fair and holistic water security measures in the region to ensure water accessibility and avoid using the already scarce resource as a political weapon.
During a panel discussion yesterday on the first day of the “Sustaining the Oasis: Envisioning the Future of Water Security” conference hosted by Georgetown University Qatar (GU-Q), speakers, including former Yemeni minister of water and environment Abdul-Rahman Al Eryani, Dr. Hamad Ebrahim Al Abdulla from Bahrain Center for Strategic, International and Energy Studies, Ciaran O Cuinn, centre director at MEDRC, Natasha Hall, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and Dr. Marcus King, professor at Georgetown University highlighted the historical intricacies of water politics in the Gulf and the wider Middle East region.
Al Eryani cited the impact of conflicts in disrupting water security measures. Using Yemen as a reference, he urged governments to build resilient and sustainable infrastructure to withstand crises, wars and other challenges.
“Yemen could be a microcosm for more regional issues. The lack of cooperation, very vague regulation and laws governing the issue of water resources and lack of efficiencies in many areas are major issues,” Al Eryani said as the panel discussed ‘Water Security and Stability in the Gulf.’
“Also, governments and politicians look at more visible and bigger projects to solve the water security issue instead of looking at several small solutions. Building big reservoirs or having big desalination plants is a solution, probably more efficient in the short term, but for sustaining the society during a crisis, conflict -- I think the approach should be more decentralised, more flexible and resilient,” he said. Meanwhile, Hall said insecurity and conflict are significant issues in the region.
“About a third of the countries in the region are embroiled in conflict, and others are affected by those conflicts. The drivers of those conflicts, the mistrust created, become entrenched over time, making it very difficult to resolve those conflicts. That kills the lifeblood of transboundary water-sharing agreements, which is trust and transparency,” Hall said. She added that due to this, water infrastructure is weaponised and targeted. “This happens directly, as we’ve seen in Gaza, where water is simply cut off from the civilian population, or desalination plants are targeted.”
The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) is the world’s most water-scarce region. With rapid population growth and the additional pressure on the already scarce resource, the problem of adequate water availability has been exacerbated. This issue is also driven by natural factors such as arid and semi-arid conditions, intermittent droughts and limited freshwater reserves.
Earlier in the conference, keynote speaker Malcolm Gladwell reasoned that social risk-taking and a sense of urgency that led to several inspirational breakthroughs could be a model for approaching climate change and water security. “When you hear [the Amazon] is 20% deforested, you think we have a lot of time, and it’s still in the early stages. But when you understand that 40% deforestation is where it collapses, you realise you don’t have a lot of time at all,” he said, adding that many climate deniers are people struggling to adjust to this kind of non-intuitive timeline.
In a conversation with the dean of GU-Q, Dr. Safwan Masri, Gladwell noted, “The persistence of scepticism about some of these issues suggests there’s something very wrong in how we are framing them for the public and our policymakers. We might need to spend more time thinking about the context in which we educate people about climate change.”
The two-day conference will conclude today, bringing together academics, stakeholders, and expert speakers to discuss water security and sustainability, including water stewardship and its role in regional stability amid climate change. It explores a comprehensive future vision for water security, including educators’ insight on raising awareness about challenges and solutions. Among the other planned outcomes, the high-level findings from the conference will be shared at the COP28 summit.
