GEO-6 Regional Asssement for West Asia
urban population density increased from 400 to 520 people per square kilometre. With various intersecting regional tensions and wars, the potential for future international and civil conflicts threatens to push environmental strain in Lebanon to new heights. (Kadi, 2015). Additionally, as Lebanon looks to exploit its off-shore natural gas reserves, it becomes crucially pressing for key political, economic, and social changes to be made.
6. Impacts of conflict in Yemen
Listed among the world’s least developed countries (LDC), Yemen suffers from rapid population growth and rural-to- urban migration, lack of economic development, increasing pressure on natural resources, and widespread health concerns. Instability in Yemen is increasingly impacting the country’s environment, once ecologically important and rich in biodiversity. Rapid population growth and urbanization add to the challenges and raise serious questions about the severity of future environmental change. Not only is water scarcity a challenge, but water quality is deteriorating due to pollution and contamination of aquifers, predominantly in cities (World Bank 2000). Moreover, although 90 per cent of water is used for agriculture, most of the wheat and rice consumed in Yemen is imported (BTI 2014). By October 2015, and as a result of the ongoing war, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported 5 462 deaths and 26 447 injuries (Howeidy 2015). Occurring at a time of water scarcity and more specifically during an important cropping season, 11 million people are now severely food insecure, of which 4.8 million are living in emergency conditions. Up to 850 000 children are malnourished and approximately 16 million people, more than half of the total population, are in need of emergency aid and access to safe drinking water. The conflict is not only impacting markets and trading, but also hindering agricultural production. Since farmers, fishers and other food producers are those most affected by the violence, food insecurity and poverty will continue to rise (FAO 2015).
7.
Future measures
With the absence of participatory conflict resolution plans and action at the international, regional and national levels, peace and security will probably deteriorate, leading to further environmental degradation in the region. The impacts of climate change will have major effects on West Asia’s ecosystems and natural resources.
International resolutions, as well as economic, political and social changes will be required to secure the well-being of people living in West Asia. Environmental assessments and recovery plans will have to be implemented, as significant degradation has resulted from past and ongoing conflicts. In this framework, the relationships between peace, security and the environment will have to be further considered in the future. Urgent action is needed, including for the restoration of environmental damage and a reduction of its health impacts. This set of measures will pave the way to sustainable development and ecologically healthy potential future scenarios.
8. Water quality
The challenge of water quality deterioration across West Asia is eclipsed by concerns over quantity. However, increasing levels of pollution and salinity of both surface and groundwater resources is increasingly affecting the ability to use the region’s scarce water resources, and is heightening tension between riparian countries. The deterioration of groundwater quality in GCC Council countries due to over- abstraction from the non-renewable aquifers during the last 20 years is an example. There is, however, a need for minimal environmental water flows to maintain ecosystems, a fact that is rarely incorporated in national water management planning and strategies within the region. As an arid and semi-arid region, water scarcity in West Asia has led to a supply management approach that seeks to utilize all available water resources and that prioritizes quantitative water allocation. The deterioration of conventional water resources has led to investment in non-conventional water resources such as desalination in the GCC countries. Domestic and industrial wastewater and agricultural drainage water
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