Tag Archives: Water

Green Resolutions for the New Year

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This year, in addition to our personal goals, let us make another New Year resolution: to make this year the year we really ‘go green’. Supporting environmental initiatives should be one of our main priorities and needs to be reflected through our green resolutions and commitment to safeguard it against all forms of pollution and to protect our fragile and finite resources. Depending on our age, work, location etc., our priorities may be different but our actions should be in unison towards environmental protection. We need to understand that we have very recklessly plundered the global resources in a short … Continue reading →

Managing Water-Energy Nexus For Better Tomorrow

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Water is an essential part of human existence, green source of energy production and input for thermal power generation. The world’s 7 billion people are dependent on just 3% (called freshwater) of the total volume of water on earth. The MENA region is home to 6.3 percent of world’s population but has access to measly 1.4 percent of the world’s renewable fresh water. Due to burgeoning population and rapid economic growth, the per capita water availability is expected to reduce to alarming proportions in the coming decades. The demand for water is expected to increase significantly in future, which is also … Continue reading →

Towards New Partnerships in Water Management

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Market-exchange economy and territory-bound nation state were not designed to accommodate a communication revolution that can envelop the globe and connect everyone and everything on the planet simultaneously. The result is that we are witnessing the birth of a new economic system and new governing institutions that are as different from market capitalism and the modern territorial state as the latter were from the feudal economy and dynastic rule of an era ago. Markets, in effect, are linear, discrete and discontinuous modes of operation. The new communications technologies and partnerships, by contrast, are cybernetic, not linear. The operational assumptions that … Continue reading →

Power of Cities to Shape a Greener Future

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The current rate of urbanization is one of the global megatrends, which will manifest itself in many of the challenges faced in the upcoming decades. UN reports estimate that nearly 70% of the world’s population will be urban by 2050. The way in which cities deal with this rapid rate of urbanization will determine whether international objectives such as Sustainable Development Goal 11, aimed at making cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable, will be achieved. Urbanization has further impacts on many more of the goals defined in the UN 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development. Achieving these goals … Continue reading →

Red-Dead Sea Water Conveyance Project – Implications and Remedies

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The legendary Dead Sea has been shrinking for the last 40 years by as much as 1m a year mostly due to water diversion of the Jordan River, mainly by Israel and to a lesser extent Jordan. This decline in the Dead Sea levels causes a variety of environmental, social, and economic harm to the surrounding countries by affecting the tourism industry, and destroying one of the world’s most distinct habitats. The surrounding countries have come to realize the severity of its destruction and have acted accordingly to mitigate its depletion. Recently, Israel, Jordan, and the Palestinian Authority have signed … Continue reading →

Sustainable Development in Jordan: Perspectives

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During the last few decades, sustainable development emerged as a hot topic in many reform agendas and strategic management plans in Jordan. The picture is not always optimistic where poverty, climate change and wars to name but a few of the continuous burdens, yet, some results have been successfully reaped. In this article, I will provide a reflection on the sustainable development journey in Jordan. Firstly, what the country achieved from the year 2000 to 2015 and secondly, what challenges the country has to counter from the year 2015 to 2030. Millennium Development Goals – Year 2000 to 2015 Jordan … Continue reading →

Introduction to Solar Pond

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A solar pond is a three-dimensional, open-air pit, filled with water endowed with special properties. It receives solar energy through insulation, then the trapped heat is extracted from it from the water lying at the bottom of the pond. When solar energy falls onto the pond, it heats the water, splitting it into three sections: the first section is the uppermost layer, or Surface Zone, containing fresh water with a low level of salinity. This owes to the fact that salts gather at the bottom. The second layer is the middle layer, called the insulating layer or Insulation Zone, whose … Continue reading →

أزمه المياه في مصر

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تعاني مصر في السنوات الاخيرة من شح شديد في المياه و يعد توزيع المياه غير المتكافئ و اساءه استخدام موارد المياه وتقنيات الري غير الفعاله بعض العوامل الرئيسيه التي تلعب دورا مدمرا للأمن المائي فيالبلاد. يعد نهر النيل شريان الحياة في مصر حيث  يغطي متطلبا ت الزراعة و الصناعه و هو المصدر الرئيسيلمياه الشرب للسكان. ان ارتفاع معدلات النمو السكاني و التنمية الاقتصادية السريعة  في دول حوض النيل  بالإضافة الى التلوث و التدهور  البيئي آخذُ باستنزاف الموارد المائية في مصر.  و تواجه مصر   عجزا مائيا يقدر  بسبع بليون متر مكعب سنويا .وفي حقيقة الامر فإن الامم المتحدة قد حذرت من نفاذ … Continue reading →

Vanishing Aquifers in MENA

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Aquifers are of tremendous importance for the MENA as world’s most water-stressed countries are located in the region, including Kuwait, Qatar, UAE, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Iran, Lebanon and Yemen. However, aquifers in MENA are coming under increasing strain and are in real danger of extinction. Eight aquifers systems, including those in MENA, are categorized as ‘over stressed’ aquifers with hardly any natural recharge to offset the water consumed. Aquifers in MENA Aquifers stretched beneath Saudi Arabia and Yemen ranks first among ‘overstressed’ aquifers followed by Indus Basin of northwestern India-Pakistan and then by Murzuk-Djado Basin in North Africa. The Nubian Sandstone Aquifer in … Continue reading →

Food Security in Lebanon

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Lebanon is clubbed with middle range countries in food security. According to an ESCWA report, 49 percent of Lebanese are reportedly worried about their ability to access enough food, and 31 percent of them stating that they were unable to eat healthy and nutritious food over the course of a year. There is scary statistics related to food security in Lebanon especially after the flow of Syrian refugees. Syria used to be an important route for agriculture activities in Lebanon.  There was an agriculture trade through Syria and with Syria. The bilateral agreement has declined from 2011-2012, which led to the increase … Continue reading →

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 →

Islam and Environment Protection

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Environment protection is an important aspect of Islam. Being stewards of the Earth, it is the responsibility of Muslims to care for the environment in a proactive manner. There is a definite purpose behind the creation of different species, be it plants or animals. Muslims are encouraged to reflect on the relationship between living organisms and their environment and to maintain the ecological balance created by Allah. Protection of the environment is essential to Islamic beliefs and mankind has the responsibility to ensure safe custody of the environment. Environment Protection and Resource Conservation The Islamic perspective on environment protection reflects … Continue reading →