GEO-6 Regional Asssement for West Asia kg of oil equivalent
Figure 1.2.6: West Asia, energy use per person by country, 1971–2011
5 000 10 000 15 000 20 000 25 000
0 Year
United Arab Emirates Saudi Arabia
Source: World Bank 2015
1.2.1 The impact of conflict on the environment and the nexus
West Asia has witnessed many cycles of growth and recession, of progress and instability, and, more recently, of peace and conflict. Some cycles have had devastating impacts on the environment (More...1), affected social structure and health (Figure 1.2.7) (Hassouna and Sinclair 2012, Prüss-Ustün et al. 2016) (More...2).
For example, due to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, groundwater in both the West Bank and Gaza is being overexploited due to scarcity and is contaminated by unsafe wastewater disposal, resulting in poor water quality and numerous diseases in OPT (PWA 2012). Further, over- extraction of groundwater has led to seawater intrusion into as much as 74.2 per cent of Gaza’s wells (Zeitoun 2008). Added to this is nitrate contamination from agriculture, leaving only 6.5 per cent of water safe for drinking (UNCTAD
18
2015). Together with physical water scarcity (Figure 1.2.8), reduced access to land can severely reduce the potential for sustainable agriculture (UNCTAD 2015) (More...3).
Marine life has also suffered from the conflict, as untreated sewage and other forms of pollution affect the sea, and limitations to fishing have lead to overfishing in constricted areas (Dixon and Fitz-Gibbon 2003, Poonian 2003, UNEP 2005, AFED 2008).
In Syria, due to the ongoing conflict, governmental institutions have been overwhelmed in regions where displaced people have been relocated (UNDP/UNWRA 2013; UNHCR 2015). Owing to these failures, much irrigated agricultural land has been abandoned, mainly due to salinization and destruction of irrigation systems, especially in the Euphrates basin (Hassan and Krepl 2014). Today, overgrazing has caused various fields of once rain-fed agriculture and rangelands to become prone to wind erosion. The war’s toxic footprint
Bahrain Syrian Arab Republic Iraq West Bank and Gaza
Jordan Yemen
Kuwait Lebanon
Oman Qatar
1971 1973 1975 1977 1979 1979 1981 1985 1987 1989 1991 1993 1995 1997 1999 2001 2003 2005 2007 2009 2011
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