“If we had water, my daughter wouldn’t have died” is a sentence no parent should have to say. Gosa Kpanyi, who is from Nigeria, is one of many parents who lost his child due to water scarcity. Kpanyi said in an interview with RootsTV Nigeria that he lives without access to water, healthcare or light. His daughter died when going to fetch water with her younger sister. For many people who have access to clean water from the tap, in the shower, toilet and so on, this issue feels distant, but reality is that the water crisis will keep getting worse if we don’t take action now. According to Unicef one in four children will live in extreme water stress already by 2040.
The global water crisis is one of the most pressing challenges of our time, and its effects are being particularly felt in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. As climate change accelerates and populations grow, the issue of water scarcity is becoming increasingly severe. Already, 25% of the world’s population lacks access to enough safe water.
Jordan is the second most affected country when it comes to water scarcity. With only 61 cubic meters of water per person per day, the average Jordanian has access to just 12% of the water poverty line, which is set at 500 cubic meters per person.
For many people living in water-rich countries, these statistics may seem distant. For example, in the United States, the average person consumes approximately 380 liters of water daily, the average swede uses 140 liters a day. However, water scarcity in the Middle East has far-reaching consequences, not only for the environment and public health but also for regional stability, agriculture, and economic development. If the crisis worsens, it could cause even more conflicts over water resources and force millions to flee their homes due to lack of access to this human right.
In 2008 the government in Jordan created a national water strategy to improve water management, infrastructure and so on. The strategy had a positive impact on the wastewater treatment in Jordan. And yet, the water crisis in Jordan, despite this improvement, is almost impossible to solve on their own. External factors contribute a lot to worsening this issue. Population growth is one of the main factors putting immense pressure on the region’s water resources. In many MENA countries, rapid urbanization and industrialization have significantly increased the demand for water, but the available supply has not kept pace. To solve this problem infrastructure, agricultural and poor water management needs to improve. We also need to take action globally against climate change, which is a big reason behind the water crises. We need to be internationally cooperating to solve this crisis.
Two-thirds of the world’s most water-scarce countries are located in the Middle East and North Africa, including Yemen, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE, making the region one of the most vulnerable to this growing crisis.
According to Unicef 2,1 billion people around the world don’t have access to enough safe water. Each year almost 830,000 people die from diseases directly caused by unsafe water, inadequate sanitation, and poor hygiene practices. These deaths, often preventable, highlight the devastating consequences of the global water crisis, particularly in low-income regions where access to clean water and proper sanitation is limited. In rich countries we often take water for granted and act very selfish regarding water usage. Globally accessibility to clean water is a privilege nowadays, it should be viewed more as a basic human right.
In conclusion, the water crisis has already had devastating effects around the globe and especially in the MENA region. In these countries the people and the government are hard working fixing a problem they aren’t the biggest contributors to, now they are trying to solve a problem mainly created in countries where water isn’t an issue or where consequences of climate change aren’t fatal for the majority of the population yet. The water crisis is not their problem, it’s our problem. Water is necessary for survival, and therefore water should be viewed and treated as a human right, not a privilege. Hello, my name is Maja Nilsson and I am 19 years old, from Sweden.I am chairman of the liberal youth association in Norrbotten (northern Sweden). In my free time I do cross-country skiing and like to spend time with loved ones. I have been a member of the Liberals since 2019, when I was 13 years old. Even then, environmental issues were something that interested me and it’s something I still want to learn more about.