In the Middle East, Water Will Increasingly Become a Weapon and Driver of Conflict

Oct 4, 2024 | RANE
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In the Middle East and North Africa, worsening water stress due to years of bad governance, security vacuums and population growth will increasingly make water a highly contested resource, raising the risk of social unrest, violence from non-state armed groups, and interstate conflict. In recent years, water stress in the Middle East and North Africa has become a more acute threat to the stability of both individual states and the broader region amid a constant struggle for control and management of this increasingly scarce vital resource. Countries' mismanagement of their water supplies over the decades has worsened the situation in the region, where the predominantly hot and dry climate already exacerbates water shortages. The rapid population growth many countries are experiencing has also heightened the demand for limited fresh water.