Reply #5: the MENA region is especially vulnerable

[JCMach1]

...Without effective policies, change in water usage behaviour and international cooperation, a catastrophic water scarcity will hit the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region within the next ten years, a senior regional diplomat said in the capital yesterday.

Countries therefore need to cooperate effectively at the regional and international level to avert such a disaster, especially as 60 per cent of the water sources in the region are shared across borders, Abdul Rahman Khalil Ahmad, minister plenipotentiary of water and natural resources at the Sudan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told Gulf News.

"While water safe for drinking and agriculture is running short dramatically in the Mena region, policies to tackle this crisis are lagging behind. We therefore need to include the problem of water scarcity into our foreign policies, and also create public awareness about the problem so that people reduce their water consumption," Ahmad said... http://m.gulfnews.com/news/gulf/uae/environment/region-only-a-decade-away-from-severe-water-crisis-1.771290