19.1.6

Water in the Middle East

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Water

Several countries in the Middle East have invested in desalination plants to increase access to water for its citizens.

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Water scarcity

  • While the Middle East might be rich in oil and natural gas reserves it has significant water scarcity amongst the countries.
  • One of the key reasons for the lack of water resources is the population boom in many of the Middle East countries, resulting in a rise in demand for domestic purposes.
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River

  • The River Euphrates and Tigris are key sources of water for Turkey, Syria and Iraq.
  • The damning of the river by Turkey upstream has created water shortages and reduction in quality for Syria and Iraq.
  • This has caused numerous conflicts between the countries to resolve the continued water problems.
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Desalination

  • Saudi Arabia uses desalination for an estimated 70% of their total water requirements and 18% of global production in the world.
  • In 2015, the country was purifying an estimated 1.3 billion cubic metres of water each year.
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Saudi Arabia

  • In 2018, Saudi Arabia has announced plans to produce a further 9 desalination plants, costing more than $530 billion and an anticipated production capacity of 240,00 cubic metres of water a day.

Jump to other topics

1Geography Skills

2Geology of the UK

3Geography of the World

4Development

5Weather & Climate

6The World of Work

7Natural Resources

8Rivers

9Coasts

10Glaciers

11Tectonics

12Climate Change

13Global Population & Inequality

14Urbanisation

15Ecosystems

16Life in an Emerging Country

17Analysis of Africa

18Analysis of India

19Analysis of the Middle East

20Analysis of Bangladesh

21Analysis of Russia

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