MENA Development Report. Making the Most of Scarcity: Accountability for Better Water Management Results in the Middle East and North Africa.

Khan, Muhammad Jehangir

MENA Development Report. Making the Most of Scarcity: Accountability for

Better Water Management Results in the Middle East and North Africa. Washington, DC:

The World Bank, 2007. 235 pages. Paperback. Price not given.

This report is the fifth in a series of flagship Development Reports that highlight key challenges facing the Middle East and North Africa region. Water in the Middle East and North Africa region is a source of major social and economic problems. The situation is likely to become even worse in the future unless current practices change: by 2050 per capita availability will fall by half, water quality will deteriorate further. Due to climate change the situation will worsen further by increasing temperatures and causing more droughts and floods.

This report argues that social, economic, and budgetary consequences will be enormous if MENA countries did not adapt to meet these combined challenges otherwise. Cities will come to rely more and more on expensive desalination and will have to rely more frequently on emergency supplies. Service outages will put stress on expensive network and distribution infrastructure. In irrigated agriculture, unreliable water services will depress farmers' incomes. The economic and physical dislocation associated with the depletion of aquifers or unreliability of supplies will increase. This will exacerbate tensions within and between communities, and will put increasing pressure on public budgets. All of this will have short and long-term effects on economic growth and poverty.

This report suggests ways in which countries within their current political and economic realities can make changes to lessen these problems. The report sounds an optimistic message that water management reform is possible and can be effective in meeting the challenges of water scarcity.

Comprehensive water reforms have been put forward by water professionals for years and many countries have improved their water policies and institutions but still some of the most politically sensitive elements of reform remain untouched. This report suggests that a series of factors are now emerging that represents a potential opportunity to break this deadlock. Three things will ensure the potential to become reality: Recognising that water policies cannot act alone; but that water outcomes are often determined by other sectors, such as trade, agriculture, finance, and energy; Adopting reforms that respond to the dynamics of the political economy, and selecting policies and practices that make government institutions and service providers more accountable to the public.

The report is divided into five chapters. The first chapter sets water management within the context of economic development and shows how countries need to allocate both water and fiscal resources more efficiently. The second chapter discusses the progress seen in the region and problems remain. It highlights areas in which the region is in vanguard worldwide but still many problem remain both inside and outside the sector. Chapter three focuses on the drivers of the political economy of water reform. It said that necessary reform is often stalled because policy-makers perceive that the benefits to be less than the political costs of actions. However the circumstances outside the water sector are changing and it could potentially open up the political space for water reform. Chapter four argues that accountability is an important factor and without appropriate accountability mechanisms benefits could not be accrued out of the changing political circumstances. Chapter five suggests ways forward. Major changes will involve for developing an equitable, flexible and efficient water management system. It outlines different initiatives that helped other countries improve institutional capacity and external accountability.

This well-written report will be of interest to those working in the areas of agribusiness and markets, agriculture, urban and rural development, water supply, and water resources, as well as to policy planners in the areas of environment, economics, and social protection. [Muhammad Jehangir Khan]