Fishing port off the island of Arwad, Syria. Source: Adel Samara
Environmental challenges The region is thus fragmented and united; divided by economic disparities, geopoliti cal tensions and cultural differences, but also connected in its tumultuous shared past and, increasingly, a stark environ mental reality in which climate change and water scarcity threaten future livelihoods. Sixty percent of the world’s “water poor” population (disposing of less than 1000m3/ person/year) lives in the Mediterranean, one of the world’s most water-scarce regions that comprises just 3 percent of the world’s water resources. Of a total population of 460 million in the Mediter ranean region, 120 million live in a situa tion of water stress with less than 1000m3/ person/year, and a further 60 million in conditions of water scarcity with less than 500m3/person/year. Rapid population growth on the southern and eastern shores – where two-thirds of the region’s population is concentrated – and rising living standards have led to a doubling in water demand in Mediterra
nean countries over the last 50 years to reach 280bn m3/year in 2007. The unequal distribution of water resources over space and time forms a further chal lenge. “The eastern- and southern-rim countries receive only a quarter and a tenth of the region’s total water resources respectively,” said Gaëlle Thivet of Plan Bleu, a regional activity center run by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Mediterranean Action Plan (MAP). Water scarcity in Egypt, Israel, Libya, Malta, Syria and the Gaza Strip is leading to unsustainable water use and over-abstrac tion from non-renewable sources such as fossil aquifers. Thivet added that water quality is also increasingly under pressure. “Many aquifers, particularly in the north, show excessively high contents of pesticides or nitrates,” she said. “Twenty-seven million people in the region are deprived of access to improved sanitation systems, mainly in the south and east. Many rivers around the sea suffer chronic pollution due to untreated domestic and industrial discharges.” This pollution also affects the sea itself
with contamination from urban, agricul tural and industrial sources placing marine and coastal ecosystems at risk. The UNEP estimates that 650m tons of sewage and 129,000 tons of mineral oil are released into the Mediterranean each year. With two-thirds of the Mediterranean popula tion living in cities today, many countries are unable to cope with the high rate of urbanization in coastal areas. Climate change also affects the sea’s water quality. “Climate change is already having an impact on the marine environment,” said Didier Sauzade of Plan Bleu. “This is likely to escalate swiftly, increasing seawater temperatures and coastal erosion, altering salinity and currents, causing acidification and a serious decline in biodiversity.” Fish stocks and diversity of species in the Eastern Mediterranean are affected by the rise in salinity that is caused by higher evaporation rates, but also by reduced freshwater inflow from the Nile River since the construction of the Aswan High Dam in Egypt. Low-lying coastal areas are also at risk from climate change and the predicted rise in sea levels.
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