Category Archives: Water Management

Water-Food Linkage in the Arab World

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The water-food linkage represents an important and vital nexus in the Arab countries. Under the current unstable food security situation (fluctuating energy prices, poor harvests, rising demand from a growing population, the use of biofuels and export bans have all increased prices), the ability for the Arab countries to feed their growing population is severely challenged by competition over increasingly limited water resources. Agriculture is currently challenged by competition among sectors on available water resources. While the majority of water in the Arab region is used inefficiently in the agricultural sector (about 85% with less than 40% efficiency), which is … Continue reading →

مشروع قناة البحرين الأحمر-الميت

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قناة البحر الميت و البحر الأحمر , و البعض يسميها قناة البحرين أو قناة ال “ Red-Dead  “  هذا هو المشروع الذي تم توقيعه في التاسع من كانون الأول لعام 2013, حيث تم بالإتفاق مع السلطات الثلاث الأردنية , الفلسطينية و الإسرائيلية معا . يهدف هذا المشروع الضخم بناء خط انابيب يمتد من البحر الأحمر إلى البحر الميت، وهو جزء من مبادرة من شأنها انتاج ملايين الأمتار المكعبة من مياه الشرب للأماكن الجافة في المنطقة وجلب مياه البحرالأحمر إلى البحر الميت  لتحقيق الاستقرار في مستوى مياهه وتوليد الطاقة الكهربائية لدعم احتياجات الطاقة لهذا المشروع . مشروع قناة البحر الأحمر – البحر … Continue reading →

كيفية التجنب من شرب المعادن الثقيلة؟

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تظهر المعادن الثقيلة بشكل طبيعي في البيئة المحيطة بنا. لذا فهي ليست من المواد التي نريدها في أجسامنا. ينتج عن كل من المعادن الثقيلة الشائعة تفاعلات مختلفة داخل الجسم. في بعض الحالات قد تساهم بعض المعادن بالتسمم أو بعض الأمراض. إليكم ما نحتاج معرفته عن المعادن الثقيلة وكيفية تجنب شربها. الأعراض التي تسببها المعادن الثقيلة إن وجدت في ماء الشرب ليس من السهل دائمًا معرفة ما إذا كان لديكم معادن ثقيلة في مياه الشرب. تتراوح الأعراض المتعلقة بوجود كميات من المعادن الثقيلة من خفيفة إلى شديدة ، فهي تميل إلى التطور ببطء بمرور الوقت. تشمل بعض الأعراض الشائعة المرتبطة بالتعرض … Continue reading →

Valorization of Desalination Brines into Molten Salts, Carbonates and Thermal Fluids

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The management of brines generated from seawater desalination has become a central issue in arid and semi-arid regions, particularly in Mediterranean basin countries and the Middle East. The rapid increase in desalination capacity, especially through reverse osmosis, has helped secure access to drinking water but has also generated a growing stream of hypersaline discharges. Global estimates indicate that worldwide brine production now exceeds 140 million m³/day, or more than 50 billion m³/year, with continuous growth driven by industrial desalination development [1]. One of the most widely studied pathways is the transformation of salts contained in brine into materials for thermal … Continue reading →

PFAS in Water Systems: Sources, Challenges and Emerging Removal Technologies

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Abstract Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) have emerged as one of the most critical classes of persistent organic contaminants threatening global water resources. Due to their exceptional chemical stability, resistance to degradation, and widespread industrial applications, PFAS are increasingly detected in groundwater, surface water, wastewater, and even drinking water supplies. This article reviews the origin and environmental pathways of PFAS contamination, with a particular focus on aquatic systems. It also examines the principal analytical techniques currently used for PFAS detection and quantification in water matrices, including LC-MS/MS and high-resolution mass spectrometry. Furthermore, the study critically analyzes conventional and advanced PFAS … Continue reading →

Rethinking Desalination through Digital Twins: From Energy-Intensive Processes to Intelligent Water Systems

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The increasing global water scarcity driven by climate change, population growth, and industrial expansion has positioned desalination, particularly seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO), as a strategic solution for ensuring water security. However, desalination processes remain energy-intensive, operationally complex, and sensitive to variations in feedwater quality and membrane performance. In this context, the emergence of the Digital Twin represents a paradigm shift in the management and optimization of desalination systems. What is Digital Twin? A digital twin is generally defined as a dynamic virtual replica of a physical system that integrates real-time data, physics-based models, and advanced analytics to simulate, predict, and … Continue reading →

Water-Food-Energy-Ecosystems Nexus in MENA: Role of Startups and Entrepreneurship

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The MENA region stands at the intersection of some of the most acute resource challenges globally. Water scarcity, energy dependency, food insecurity, and ecosystem degradation are not isolated crises; they are deeply interconnected, reinforcing one another in complex and often unpredictable ways. The Water–Energy–Food–Ecosystems (WEFE) Nexus has emerged as a conceptual and operational framework to address these interdependencies, promoting integrated resource management and cross-sectoral coordination. Yet, despite its conceptual maturity and policy recognition, the WEFE Nexus in MENA remains largely under-implemented. The missing link is not knowledge, nor policy ambition, it is execution. Increasingly, startups and entrepreneurship are emerging as … Continue reading →

Decentralized Brackish Water Desalination as a Catalyst for Climate-Resilient and Sustainable Agriculture

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Water scarcity has emerged as one of the most pressing challenges facing the Mediterranean basin, a region characterized by sharp climatic gradients, demographic pressures, and structural inequalities in resource distribution. Agriculture alone accounts for between 64% and 79% of freshwater withdrawals in many Mediterranean countries, particularly in the southern and eastern shores, where irrigation is essential for food security and rural livelihoods [1]. Climate change is intensifying these pressures through increased frequency of droughts, rising temperatures, and declining precipitation, thereby exacerbating groundwater depletion and salinization [2]. In this context, decentralized brackish water desalination is gaining recognition as a promising pathway … Continue reading →

Diversifying Water Resources as a Strategic Risk Management Approach: Case of Algeria’s Integrated Water Supply System

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Water scarcity has emerged as one of the most critical global challenges of the twenty-first century, particularly in arid and semi-arid regions where natural water availability is inherently limited and increasingly threatened by climate change. In such contexts, relying on a single water source is no longer sustainable. Scientific consensus increasingly supports the idea that no single solution can solve water scarcity; instead, diversification of water supply sources represents a robust and adaptive risk management strategy. This approach is particularly relevant for countries like Algeria, where water stress is structural, yet where significant investments have been made to mobilize a … Continue reading →

Wastewater Treatment as a Lever for Energy Transition and Water Security

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Abstract Wastewater treatment is evolving from a pollutant removal process to a resource recovery system. In the context of increasing water scarcity and global energy transition, wastewater represents a strategic source of reusable water, nutrients, and energy. This study analyzes the role of wastewater treatment technologies as a driver of energy transition and water security. Based on a critical review of scientific and institutional literature, conventional and advanced treatment systems are compared. Results indicate that anaerobic digestion and nature-based solutions significantly improve energy recovery and reduce carbon emissions. Wastewater treatment plants can thus evolve into energy-positive infrastructures within the water–energy … Continue reading →

Aquaculture Using Desalination Brine: Transforming a Waste Stream into Sustainable Food Production

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The rapid expansion of desalination capacity in arid and semi‑arid regions has generated an urgent need to find sustainable uses for the concentrated brine by‑product produced by seawater and brackish water desalination plants. Traditionally, brine has been treated as a waste stream, often discharged into the sea or terrestrial environments with little or no value recovery. Because most desalination technologies, especially reverse osmosis, produce brine with salinities significantly higher than natural seawater, improper disposal of this stream can lead to negative environmental impacts, including increased salinity in coastal zones, benthic ecosystem disruption, and changes in water column chemistry. However, over … Continue reading →

Water Pollution Worries in the Developing World

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Water pollution has become a major concern worldwide, especially in developing countries where around 3.2 million children die each year as a result of unsafe drinking water and poor sanitation. Access to adequate wastewater treatment facilities in the developing countries is very limited. For example, only 209 of India’s 3,119 towns and cities—less than one in ten—have even partial sewage systems and treatment facilities. As a result water bodies in developing nations are often used as open sewers for human waste products and garbage, which is evident at the Ganges River in India which receives over 1.3 billion liters of domestic waste, … Continue reading →