The World Bank urged governments in the Middle East and North Africa on Sunday to speed up improvements to water resources and said water availability per person in the region was set to drop by half by 2050. The World Bank said in a report that many countries in the area already faced full-blown crises in meeting water demand, and that was likely to worsen without reform.
"Drinking water services will become more erratic than they already are," the report said.
"Cities will come to rely more and more on expensive desalination, and during droughts will have to rely more frequently on emergency supplies brought by tanker or barge."
The region is already the most water-scarce in the world, and uses more of its renewable water resources than anywhere else. "All of this will have short- and long-term effects on economic growth and poverty, will exacerbate social tensions within and between communities and will put increasing pressure on public budgets," the report said.