Tag Archives: Water

Water-Energy-Food Nexus in Arab Countries

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Addressing water scarcity, both natural and human-induced, in the Arab region is considered one of the major and most critical challenges facing the Arab countries. This challenge is expected to grow with time due to many pressing driving forces, including population growth, food demand, unsettled and politicized shared water resources, climate change, and many others, forcing more countries into more expensive water sources, such as desalination, to augment their limited freshwater supplies. The heavy financial, economic, environmental, as well as social costs and burden to be borne cannot be overemphasized. Furthermore, the water scarcity challenge in the Arab world is being … Continue reading →

Water-Energy Nexus in Arab Countries

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Amongst the most important inter-dependencies in the Arab countries is the water-energy nexus, where all the socio-economic development sectors rely on the sustainable provision of these two resources. In addition to their central and strategic importance to the region, these two resources are strongly interrelated and becoming increasingly inextricably linked as the water scarcity in the region increases.  In the water value chain, energy is required in all segments; energy is used in almost every stage of the water cycle: extracting groundwater, feeding desalination plants with its raw sea/brackish waters and producing freshwater, pumping, conveying, and distributing freshwater, collecting wastewater … Continue reading →

Egypt’s Water Crisis and Degeneration of Nile

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Egypt is struggling to cope with water shortages and food production. It is expected that Egypt’s per capita annual water supply will drop from 600 cubic meters today to 500 cubic meters by 2025, which is the UN threshold for absolute water scarcity. Egypt has only 20 cubic meters per person of internal renewable freshwater resources, and as a result the country relies heavily on the Nile for its main source of water. Water scarcity has become so severe that it has been recorded that certain areas in the country could go days without water, with pressure sometimes returning only … Continue reading →

الإسلام وحماية البيئة

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حماية البيئة هو جانب هام من جوانب الإسلام. بما اننا خلفاء في الأرض، فإنه يقع على عاتقنا كمسلمين العناية بالبيئة، فهناك غرض محدد وراء وجود أنواع مختلفة، سواء كان ذلك نباتات أو حيوانات.  لذا يتوجب على المسلمين التفكير في العلاقة بين الكائنات الحية وبيئتها والحفاظ على التوازن البيئي الذي خلقه الله فحماية البيئة أمر أساسي للمعتقدات الإسلامية، والبشرية لديها مسؤولية لتضمن الحفاظ الآمن للبيئة حماية البيئة والحفاظ على الموارد  المنظور الإسلامي حول حماية البيئة يعكس صورة إيجابية عن الإسلام وكيف يحتضن كل مسألة  تواجه البشر على وجه الأرض.  الموقف الإسلامي تجاه البيئة والحفاظ على الموارد الطبيعية لا يعتمد فقط على … Continue reading →

The Menace of Plastic Water Bottles

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Plastic water bottles are a common feature in urban life in the Middle East. The availability of water bottles is common and the cost is affordable by all sections of the society due to which its use and misuse has increased manifolds with time. People also provide it for free in mosques and other public locations. It is because of its easy availability that people misuse this resource considering it free, taking a bottle, sipping it, consuming partly and leaving it at the venue or throwing it in garbage bins. Empty and partially consumed water bottles are collected and thrown away in municipal … Continue reading →

Earth Day 2014 – Focus on Green Cities

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Earth Day, celebrated annually on April 22, marks the birth of modern environmental movement. Earth Day has now grown into a global tradition making it the largest civic observance in the world and is one of the widely celebrated events in which over one billion people from over 190 countries participate by taking suitable actions for saving our mother Earth. The Earth Day was first organised in 1970 to promote respect for life on the planet and to encourage awareness on air, water and soil pollution. Each year a different theme or topic is selected. Earth Day 2014 Earth Day 2014 … Continue reading →

Ten Tips for Green Living

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Green living is an attempt to reduce an individual's or society's use of the Earth's natural resources by altering methods of transportation, energy consumption, water usage etc. Greene living aims to meet present ecological, societal, and economical needs without compromising these factors for coming generations. Reduction in the size of ecological or carbon footprint is the natural outcome of sustainable living. Water pollution, soil contamination, air pollution, waste disposal, resource conservation, wildlife protection are the major environment challenges facing the mankind. When it comes to sustainability, every individual has a role to play. Any individual can adopt a green lifestyle. Here are few green living tips that may … Continue reading →

CSP-Powered Desalination: Prospects in MENA

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Conventional large-scale desalination is cost-prohibitive and energy-intensive, and not viable for poor countries in the MENA region due to increasing costs of fossil fuels. In addition, the environmental impacts of desalination are considered critical on account of GHG emissions from energy consumption and discharge of brine into the sea. The negative effects of desalination can be minimized, to some extent, by using renewable energy to power the plants. What is Concentrated Solar Power The core element of Concentrated Solar Power Plant is a field of large mirrors reflecting captured rays of sun to a small receiver element, thus concentrating the … Continue reading →

The Menace of Single-Use Plastic Bags

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Single-use plastic bags are one of the most objectionable types of litter in urban areas. The sheer volume of plastic waste generated coupled with energy and material resources required for production, as well as emissions resulting from these processes paint a grim picture of the environmental havoc created by plastic bags. Single-use plastic bags are a huge threat to the environment as an estimated 1 trillion such bags are consumed worldwide every year. In the United Arab Emirates alone, nearly 12 billion plastic bags are used annually. Major Hazards Single-use plastic bags are notorious for their interference in natural ecosystems … Continue reading →

Desalination – A Better Choice for MENA

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Water scarcity is a major problem in many parts of the world affecting quality of life, the environment, industry, and the economies of developing nations. The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region is considered as one of the most water-scarce regions of the world. Large scale water management problems are already apparent in the region. While the MENA region’s population is growing steadily, per capita water availability is expected to fall by more than 40-50% by the year 2050. Also, climate change is likely to affect weather and precipitation patterns, and the consequences of which may force the MENA … Continue reading →

أهمية المحافظة على المياه المنزلية

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تعاني منطقة الشرق الاوسط من ندرة المياه وسوء الإدارة للموارد المائية. وعلى الرغم من الإستثمارات الضخمة في قطاع المياه، لا تزال قضية إدارة المياه شكل خطوره من الناحية الإقتصادية والبيئية في جميع أنحاء هذه المنطقة. الإستهلاك المفرط للمياه هي قضية خطيرة ويعتبر معدل استخدام نصيب الفرد من المياه في معظم بلدان الشرق الأوسط أعلى كثيرا من المعدل العالمي. فعلى سبيل المثال، متوسط استهلاك المقيمين في كل من الإمارات العربية المتحدة والسعودية حوالي 250 لترا و550 لترا من المياه يوميا على التوالي. بينما معدل استخدام الفرد للمياه في المملكة المتحدة وألمانيا حوالي 127 لترا و150 لترا من المياه يوميا على التوالي. … Continue reading →

Hydrogen Economy for Arab Countries: Perspectives

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Arab world is facing major sustainability challenges in achieving social, economic and environmental goals. Hydrogen economy can help Arab governments, companies, and citizens to save billions of dollars each year from reduced energy bills and sustainable waste management, while at the same time reducing carbon footprints – a win-win solution. Extremely arid climate, acute water scarcity, high energy consumption and polluting oil and gas industry present a unique challenge in Arab countries. Almost one-fifth of the Arab population is dependent on non-commercial fuels for different energy uses. All sectors of the economy — residential, commercial, transport, service and agriculture — demands … Continue reading →

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