According to the latest report by MEED Insight, Mena Renewable Energy 2012, states right across the region are now planning a substantial hike in renewable energy capacity over the coming decade to meet high power demand growth, limit the use of oil and gas feedstock in power generation, and take advantage of a forecast drop in solar and wind generated electricity.Ten of the 14 Arab states covered in this report have set 2020 renewable energy targets, ranging from 5 per cent of the total energy mix to 42 per cent. Even those that have not, such as Saudi Arabia and Iraq, are talking of implementing major solar power programmes. The targets imply that renewable energy capacity will have to rise three-fold to at least 27,000MW if they are to be met.

For most Arab states, raising the contribution of solar and wind power in the energy mix is only one part of the renewables drive, says Angus Hindley, MEED’s Research Director, and author of the report. Increasingly, governments see the capacity push as nurturing new solar-related manufacturing, which will not only create much-needed employment but also assist in economic diversification.

Along with providing a detailed analysis of the existing renewable energy sector across the MENA region, this report offers you a detailed forecast for demand growth, additional capacity and investment requirements to 2020. You will benefit from detailed insight into:
•    Renewable energy targets of 14 Arab states to 2020
•    Data on existing renewable energy capacity and planned projects
•    The effect of high demand growth and the forecast rise in solar and wind generated electricity on planned capacity
•    The effect of civil unrest in 2011 on renewable energy plans
•    Plans to create much-needed employment and economic diversification through renewable energy industry and much more?
To access exclusive data, research and analysis along with many tables, graphs, charts and maps you can order your copy here.

Source: Angus Hindley
Head of Research, MEED
Telephone: +971 (0) 4 367 1302 Fax: +971 (0) 4 368 8023

Senior officials of the rebels’ interim government earlier accused Gaddafi loyalists of destroying water pumps and attacking water engineers trying to restart pumping stations [2]. Aid agency sources said pro-Gaddafi forces in Sirte had cut off the water supply to Tripoli [1].

A human rights group condemned the bombing by NATO on 22 July 2011 of a pipe factory in Brega, which serviced the water supply system of the GMMR Project. NATO claimed that Gaddafi forces were using the factory as a base for rocket launchers [3].

During the water outage in Tripoli, the World Food Programme (WFP) partnered with UNICEF to distribute bottled water via hundreds of mosques in the city [4]. New supplies of bottled water are partly being diverted to Misrata where a contingency stock is being set up for distribution in Bani Walid and Sirte once the fighting there stops [5].

South Korea said it was sending a team of water engineers to Libya help restore water supply services that were sabotaged by retreating Gaddafi forces [6]. Companies from South Korea and other countries including USA, Turkey, UK, Japan and Germany, had been awarded lucrative contracts to work on the Great Man-Made River Project which began in 1994 [7,8].

Called the largest civil engineering venture in the world, the GMMR Project was one of Gaddafi’s most prized projects attracting international attention. UNESCO in 1999 accepted Libya’s offer to fund an award named after it, the Great Man-Made River International Water Prize (last awarded in 2009). Funded from oil revenues, the project provided water free of charge to Libyan consumers  [7].

Many of the Libyans who have worked on the project were trained in The Netherlands at Delft University of Technology and at the UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education [9].

The cost of the GMMR project to date are often quoted to be US$ 25 billion but an official in the GMMR Authority in Benghazi, Abdussalam Jehawi, said this figure was exaggerated. The total cost since the start in 1984, he claims, has been about US$ 9.2 billion with another US$ 3.4b billion planned to be spent for the completion of phase three [10].

Nevertheless, the project cost more than it should have because engineers were abruptly told in the middle of planning in the 1980s for the second phase to go around a huge tract of the desert known as Rabta, where Col Qaddafi was building a chemical weapons plant known as “Pharma 150″, Mr Jehawi said [10].

There has been speculation that Gaddafi has used GMMR pipelines as an escape route. Engineers who worked on the GMMR project during the 1990s say it was large enough to carry military vehicles down its entire length [11, 12].

[1] Water supplies resume in Libyan capital, Reuters / ArabNews.com, 05 Sep 2011,

[2] Water back on in parts of Tripoli: Libyan official, AP / Gulfnews, 05 Sep 2011

[3] NATO bombs the Great Man-Made River, HRI, 27 Jul 2011

[4] WFP and UNICEF partner to deliver vital humanitarian assistance to Libya, UNICEF, 05 Sep 2011

[5] OCHA, Libyan Arab Jamahiriya Crisis – Situation Report No. 56, 11 Sep 2011

[6] S. Korea to send water engineers to Libya this week, Yonhap, 06 Sep 2011

[7] Frances Thomas, The GMMR Project: Libya’s achievement and NATO as war criminal party-pooper, OpEdNews, 01 Sep 2011

[8] Wikipedia – Great Manmade River

[9] Jannie Schipper, Harvesting Libya’s hidden water with Holland’s help, RNW, 01 Sep 2011

[10]Bradley Hope, Libya needs water despite Qaddafi’s Great Manmade River, UPI, 29 Aug 2011

[11] Martin Chulov and Peter Walker, Gaddafi sons face last stand in Libya, Guardian, 01 Sep 2011

[12] Libya: what role for Great Man-Made River Project in conflict?, WASH news Middle East & North Africa, 11 May 2011

Several people have died from suspected cholera cases in the single hospital existing in Mogadishu, and there have been many other confirmed cholera outbreaks across the country according to the UN World Health Organisation.Since the mobile hospital was inaugurated last week, it has visited the refugee camp in the suburbs of Mogadishu to give treatment to more than 820 patients suspected to be suffering from Cholera caused by a bacteria that spread through dirty water.

It is easily treated with oral rehydration salts and antibiotics. But many health centres in Somalia lack even these basic supplies. As a result, those who get cholera, especially children, can die of dehydration within days or even hours of being infected.
Source: UAE Interact, 15/08/2011.

Related articles: Help us to help millions in Somalia, asks RCA – 16 August 2011
Mohammed bin Rashid Humanitarian and Charity Establishment sets up nutrition centres in Somalia – 15 August 2011

Source: FSRN / Real News, 28 Jul 2011

Pre-paid water systems are being introduced in four phases at a cost of KD 1.5 million (US$ 5.5 million).
Phase one includes seven water plants, while the following 3 phases will include six plants each.

The pre-paid service will be offered to consumers via cards, that will be readily available at various distribution points across the country.

Source: KUNA, Kuwait Times, 18 Jul 2011

Professor Tariq Madani of the King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, held an interactive workshop for the children, which involved a demonstration of the Interactive ‘Glow germ Booth’.

The Dettol HABIT Study was carried out in 12 countries including Saudi Arabia and the UAE, the only countries where face-to-face interviews were conducted. The study found that people who have good manners have better personal hygiene and are almost two and a half times more likely to have good health with low levels of colds and diarrhoea.

These results highlight the key factors that influence different hygiene behaviours and the importance of good hygiene (such as effective hand washing and household cleaning) and good manners (such as covering your mouth when sneezing or coughing) in breaking the chain of infection.

The results showed that someone who cares about being mannerly is less likely to declare a preference for antibacterial soap and unusually, men (not women) are more likely to report better health. In addition, in terms of age older people are more likely to report regular hand washing with soap.

The study also showed that tidy/orderly individuals are more hygienic than messy/chaotic people, women and older people tend to be more hygienic than men and younger people and that homemakers display the highest levels of personal and household hygiene whilst students and office workers display the worst.

Levels of personal and household hygiene were highest when hygiene habits were undertaken automatically or as part of everyday routine and for those who are aware of the threat of germs. In addition, people who have heard of antibacterial soap are significantly more likely to have better personal hygiene habits.

See below a TV interview with Prof. John Oxford, chairman of the Hygiene Council, who discusses the results of the Dettol HABIT study.

For practical information on good hygiene practices visit the Hygiene Council web site.

Source: Dubib.com, 15 Jul 2011 ; AMEinfo, 31 May 2011

A delegation of US artists visited Gaza to bring worldwide attention to the water crisis in the besieged territory. The artists came to help the local community paint murals about drinking water a basic human right. The initiative is part of the Water Writes project of the Estria Foundation, which is creating a series of 10 collaborative mural projects in 10 cities across the globe in areas impacted by water rights issues.

The murals in Gaza are being painted at the sites of water treatment units, which have been installed at schools and kindergartens, as part of the Middle East Children’s Alliance (MECA) Maia project, which was launched in September 2009, to provide Palestinian children with clean drinking water. Other organizations involved in the Maia Mural Brigade project are the Break The Silence Mural and Arts Project and the Olympia-Rafah Solidarity Mural Project.

Water experts say that more than 90% of ground water in Gaza is not suitable for human consumption, adding that Palestinians get only a quarter of the water Israelis have access to. According to the Gaza Coastal Municipal Water Utility, Gaza will not have any fresh groundwater by 2015. Gazans consume more than 170 million liters from an aquifer which is the only source of groundwater in the strip.

The ongoing five year siege of Gaza has meant an increasingly long waiting list of spare parts and building materials. This directly has affected Gaza’s ability to maintain its sanitation and water treatment facilities.

Related web sites:

• Estria Foundation – Water Writes project
• Middle East Children’s Alliance (MECA) Maia project
• Facebook – Maia Mural Brigade

Source: Yousef al-Helou, Press TV [Iran], 11 Jul 2011

Seventeen water centres from 10 countries across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) came together in February-March 2011 to create the MENA Network of Water Centers of Excellence (MENA NWC).  The launch of the network took place during a meeting co-sponsored by USAID and the Qatar National Food Security Program (QNFSP) held from 28 February to 2 March 2011 in Doha, Qatar.

The network aims to link technical institutions across the Middle East and North Africa with each other, with counterpart institutions in the United States and elsewhere, with governments, and with the private sector to solve the critical water problems confronting the region.

On 8 May 2011, USAID Egypt launched the US$ 1.5 million MENA Water Grants Program. The focus is on training, applied research and the dissemination of information to transform water policy, management and capabilities within the MENA region. The grants are available for activities lasting 12-24 months up to a maximum of US$ 500,000 per year. The deadline for applications is 15 June 2011.

Web site: MENA NWC – mena-nwc.net

Source: John Wilson, USAID Impact Blog, 10 Mar 2011

Saudi Arabia’s advanced treated water reuse capacity is growing at more than 30 percent annually and is expected to reach 2.2 million cubic meters per day by 2016, from a current level of 260,000 cubic meters per day.

Saudi Arabia has mandated a target of 11 percent of its water use to come from treated wastewater, which is suitable for domestic and industrial uses such as landscaping.

On World Water Day 2011, GE released a white paper called “Creating Effective Incentives for Water Reuse and Recycling“.

Source: Saudi Gazette, 06 Apr 2011

Disi Water Conveyance Project

The US$ 990 million Disi project (2008-2012) involves extracting 100 million cubic metres of water a year from a 300,000-year-old aquifer and transporting it over 325 km south to the capital Amman. The plan would ensure enough water for Amman for the next 50 years.

However, Disi’s water has 20 times more radiation than is considered safe, according to a 2008 study by Duke University in the USA. The government said the problem can be solved by diluting the water with an equal amount of water from other sources. Jordan University professor Elias Salameh also stated it was not complicated to deal with the radioactivity.

Friends of the Earth Middle East (FoEME) warned against the threat of overpumping, which could cause problems likes problems like sinkholes. The group also says there were no studies that said for certain how long the aquifer water would last.

Two Seas Canal

The World Bank is conducting a feasibility study on this project, but environmentalists warn that saline water intrusion could damage Dead Sea’s fragile ecosystem.

The degradation of the Dead Sea began in the 1960s when Israel, Jordan and Syria began to divert water from the Jordan River – the Dead Sea’s main supplier.

Over the years 95% of the river’s flow has been diverted by the three neighbours for agricultural and industrial use, with Israel alone diverts more than 60% of it, according to FoEME.

The impact on the Dead Sea has been compounded by a drop in groundwater levels as rainwater from surrounding mountains dissolved salt deposits that had previously plugged access to underground caverns.

Water mismanagement

Water expert and a former Jordan Valley Authority chief Dureid Mahasneh, says that Jordan is suffering from massive water mismanagement due to a lack of a proper strategy. The country cultivates crops with a large water footprint that easily could be imported to save water. Over 60% of Jordan’s annual water consumption of 900 million cubic metres goes to agriculture, which only contributes 3.6% to the gross domestic product. In addition, around 48% of pumped water supplies are lost annually due to worn-out pipes and theft, Mahasneh claimed.

Source: Sapa / Saving Water SA, 06 Apr 2011