General Assembly Resolution 53-21

Committee: UN Environmental Programme

Topic: Water Scarcity in the Middle East-North African region

 

Concerned that one-quarter of the Earth may suffer from chronic water shortage in the beginning of next century;

Realizing that 80 nations now are listed as having water shortages that are a potential threat to health, local business and economy;

Additionally concerned that acute water shortages may likely lead to conflict over the scarce resource, and that nowhere is this more likely to happen than in the Middle East-North African region;

Affirming the belief of the World Bank’s Environmental President who stated that by the year 2025 the amount of water available to the average Middle Easterner will have decreased by 80% of what it is today, partially as a result of the expectation that the population of the region will double in 25 years;

Recognizing that, right now, 9 out of 14 Middle Eastern countries are already suffering severe water shortages;

Observant of the reality that the Middle East-North Africa area is a region of enormous tension, and that the countries of the region have some of the most powerful military capabilities on the globe;

Respectful of the important role of the Arab League in promoting cooperative relationships between the 22 Arab nations which belong to it;

Mindful of the significant funds which would be needed to develop modern solutions to the water scarcity problem (such as developing desalination capabilities);

Aware of the important work being done by the Middle East Desalination Research Center based in Oman, and also aware of the international symposium on "Desalination of Seawater with Nuclear Energy" held in South Korea in May, 1997;

Cognizant of the fact that the ME-NA region has great disparity in wealth, as exempified in the following list of ME-NA countries and their Per Capita GDP figures:

UAE ($22,480), Qatar ($20,820), Kuwait ($16,380), Israel ($13,880), Bahrain ($12,100),

Oman ($10,020), Saudi Arabia ($9510), Libya ($6510),Syria ($5000), Iran ($4720),

Lebanon ($4360), Jordan ($4280), Algeria ($3480), Morocco ($3060),

Iraq ($2520), Egypt ($2490), Yemen ($1995), Tunisia ($1420), Sudan ($870), Somalia ($150)

1. Encourages the Middle East Desalination Research Center to further explore nuclear energy as a way of providing the significant energy needed in order to convert salt water into fresh water, and to employ the services of South Korea, Kazakhstan, Japan, India, Russia, China and Morocco, all of which have begun using nuclear energy in their desalination efforts;

 

2. Proposes that the Arab League pressure richer Arab League members such as UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, Saudi Arabia and Libya to dramatically increase economic aid to other Arab League members in order to help them pay for the following:

a) desalination plants (which are widely used by the richer Arab countries)

b) development of nuclear power plants

c) development of waste water treatment plants to attain the capability of re-using waste waste water for the purposes of irrigation;

d) development of drip irrigation (widely used in Israel)

e) birth control efforts

 

3. Calls upon the governments of the ME-NA region to accelerate birth control efforts so as to decrease the demand for water in the region