“Are water scarce countries equipped and ready to meet the challenge of a global water crisis?” This was one of the first questions Dr. Thomas posed at us during his presentation.
The relevance of this question struck me given the current headlines making the news about the unstable situation in the Middle East. According to the presentation, the Middle East is considered to be suffering from a physical scarcity of water (vs. economic scarcity of water such as in Africa). Tunisia, Jordan, Egypt, Algeria, Iraq and Lebanon are among the countries currently facing civil or political unrest. Perhaps water is not presently the focal issue for these countries’ governments, however, given their current struggles, will they be well equipped to deal with increasing water shortages? Can there be a link between the rising price of staples and increasing water scarcity?
A wave of violent demonstrations recently took over Algeria and Tunisia as well as Jordan in protest over high prices, unemployment and falling living standards.[1] Jordan consequently announced a $225 million package of cuts in the prices of some types of fuel and of staple products including sugar and rice, and other Arab countries have taken similar steps.[2] This was merely a reactive response to escalating dissent. Although some may argue rising prices in commodities, staples and fuel, is the influence of the recent economic downturn; I speculate they are more linked to faulty or inadequate non-proactive policies. Shortage in water will soon be, if not already, another reason for an environment of political tension and civil unrest in these water scarce countries.
Desertification was discussed as a major problem in drylands, which in fact cover an area of 41% of the world and are home to over 2 billion people.[3] With increasing desertification, there is less opportunity for local and national self-sufficiency and less crop growth, which in turn leads to food insecurity and causes labour/rural to urban migration and even cases of environmental refugees.
If desertification and the decreasing appeal of the agricultural sector are main causes in labour migration and increasing prices of staples (thus causing civil unrest), then perhaps governments should begin to create forward looking policies that focus on creating jobs through improving the agricultural sector, to improve production efficiency (with higher value crops, fit for water scarce regions as Dr. Thomas mentioned) and to reduce rural to urban migration. Further, policies should also start focusing on reviving traditional mechanisms of water collection in drier regions as these seem to be the most sustainable and environmentally-friendly, and a gateway to maintaining and improving crop growth in certain areas, thus requiring greater labour and reducing migration out of these regions.[4]
Perhaps the link between the current riots in the Middle East and problems of desertification due to global warming and water scarcity is not so obvious at first. It has not been unveiled through mainstream media, nor probed at by journalists. However, addressing issues of employment security alone will not resolve the dilemma, so long as food and water security issues remain marginalized. Unless this link is identified, a root source of instability will only be dormant before it erupts. Priorities need to be reevaluated.
[2] Suleiman al-Khalidi. “Hundreds protest over high prices in south Jordan”. Reuters Africa. Fri Jan 14, 2011. Accessed Jan 19, 2011. <http://af.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idAFTRE70D3AQ20110114>.
[3] Bigas, H., Adeel, Z., & Shuster, C. (eds) “Seeing traditional technologies in a new light.” 2009. <http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0018/001817/181799e.pdf>.
[4] ibid.
Interesting thoughts.. With these types of policies, how do you think they might overcome the challenge of looking only to the immediate future. People have generally abandoned traditional technologies for more efficient, more effective ones to maximize production, despite future consequences years down the road such as a water table that's 20m lower.
ReplyDelete-Sarah
Thanks for highlighting current news stories.
ReplyDeletePolitical leaders have a tough job to balance here-and-now issues with those soon-to-be, particularly in democracies where their job status is voter-dependent. Public ignorance and dynamic system interactions, along with alternative/hidden agendas, merely compound the difficulties. Ahhh... :)
Stimulating and timely post. Think how bad things might get in the future if water REALLY becomes an issue.
ReplyDeleteAnd then transpose that to our North American situation (i.e. water scarcity in the US and water-rich Canada to the North). Should our govts. be looking at the MENA region and taking note? Or is that just too far in our future?