By Rami Abdelrahman 

DEAD SEA - World political and business leaders meeting at the World Economic Forum's (WEF) Middle East 2007 sessions, debated on the future prospects of water in the region, with optimists seeing water as an opportunity of regional peace and global cooperation, while pessimists thought a water war is imminent.   

The forum started on May 18 with King Abdullah of Jordan delivering a speech that highlighted water as one of the most important sectors to focus discussions on. Ahead of the opening plenary session, the WEF distributed a study summary, entitled "Middle East at risks" which gave lack of fresh water resources as well as regional disintegration in global financial flows the same risk weight as nuclear proliferation in the Middle East. 

With such a negative tone, the report goes on to say that "often the largest economies in the Middle East, have not yet overcome the dominance of the state sector and remain relatively unattractive to foreign investment," which is not helping while an increased loss of fresh water resources is taking place. The report attributed the reasons behind the loss to climate change and increasing burden of overuse. 

"The two main factors affecting future water scarcity in the Middle East are water use, and patterns of supply. Without greater public accountability, and without moves to reallocate water supplies, demand will increase as populations expand. If climate change patterns accelerate, freshwater service supplies are likely to become more erratic. MENA countries are already using more water than they receive each year; growing awareness of the need to manage freshwater throughout the cycle, as opposed to managing discrete portions of supply," according to the report, a copy of which was made available to OoskaNews. 

The World Bank expects water availability per person in the region to drop by half by 2050, and suggests that increased penury is likely to divert development funds to desalination and water transport schemes, a pattern that is already observed across the region. 

However, without the implementation of clear cut treaties that defines water rights in the region, the bank expects increasing geopolitical conflicts between headwater and tributary countries - especially around the Euphrates, Tigris, the Nile, the Jordan and the Yarmouk rivers. 

The WEF report, done in cooperation with the Gulf Research Center, suggests that the mitigation to these said risks lies within the region, despite the fact that most of these risks are also interconnected with similar global risks. It says that regional cooperation to reduce geo-political risks is more important than ever. 

In the same line of thought, Jordanian businessmen and founder of Aramex shipping solutions, Fadi Ghandour, said during a panel-discussion by the this year's forum co-chairs, that one of the most important developmental barriers in the region is that development is left to governments and the non-profit sector, while the business sector is doing very little in this regard, although this would back fire on business in the long term. 

Another highlight of the conference was the several meetings that took place between Jordanian, Palestinian and Israeli officials, which gave a chance for dialogue regarding the Red-Dead canal project linking the Red Sea to the Dead Sea and producing desalinated water for these countries. Prior to the forum, press reports have been skeptical about the completion of the project, which was birthed out of a previous WEF session, due to instability in Palestinian-Israeli relations. No reported conclusions came out of these meetings. 

A study looking at different scenarios for the Gulf region was also published during the session. Prepared by the WEF, the Economic Development Board of Bahrain, the Executive Affairs Authority of Abu Dhabi and the Olayan Financing Company in Saudi Arabia, the study concluded that "over the next 20 years the region will continue to draw the world's attention not just in terms of energy security, but also due to its fast-growing capital markets and innovative cities." 

Saeed Al Muntafiq, Executive Chairman of Tatweer and WEF co-Chair, said there is an element of urgency to diversify investments in the Gulf region and the Middle East, especially towards ‘green' energy, following the examples of Sweden, Germany, Brazil, Spain and others that offer incentives for environmentally-friendly projects.  

"International best practices are showing that private companies need incentives to start focusing on developing environmentally-friendly solutions and these should be originated from the public sector," he said.  

One environmentally-friendly project that was represented in the sessions was the Mudabala project in Abu-Dhabi, the first carbon-free, solar-powered energy city. It was highlighted during a session on empowering entrepreneurship, facilitated by Linda Rottenberg, Co-Chair of the World Economic Forum on the Middle East, and Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Endeavor Global, USA. 

The session asked participants to outline key sectors for investment in the region, and asked what their investment criteria would be. Working groups identified 5 key areas for investment, one of which was sustainable energy, renewable power and water, with commercial viability, sustainability and big potential as their top priorities. 

PUBLISHED at www.ooskanews.com