MENA’s water future: Innovation, desalination, and sustainable solutions for scarcity |
Water scarcity in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region has moved from a long-standing structural challenge to an urgent existential concern. Rising temperatures, prolonged droughts, erratic rainfall, and rapid population growth are colliding in one of the world’s most water-stressed regions. Climate change has intensified these pressures, pushing governments to rethink how water is produced, managed, and sustained. Against this backdrop, MENA has emerged not merely as a victim of scarcity, but as a global laboratory for water innovation-particularly in desalination and related technologies.
This shift was prominently showcased at the Innovation-Driven Water Sustainability Conference held recently in Jeddah. The event underscored Saudi Arabia’s growing leadership in water innovation and its broader ambition to position the region as a global hub for water security solutions. With freshwater resources dwindling across the Arab world, governments are no longer experimenting at the margins. They are committing to bold investments, large-scale partnerships, and long-term strategies that seek to transform scarcity into resilience.
Water scarcity has always shaped political, economic, and social realities in MENA, but the scale of today’s challenge is unprecedented. Unpredictable weather patterns have disrupted traditional water cycles, while urbanization and industrial growth have driven demand sharply upward. In response, MENA governments are planning to nearly double their desalination capacity by 2030. Already, the region accounts for around 60 percent of global desalination capacity-a staggering figure that highlights both its dependence on the technology and its dominance in the sector.
Investment trends reflect the urgency of the moment. Regional spending on desalination and water infrastructure is expected to rise from approximately $39.3 billion in 2022 to nearly $100 billion by 2030. This expansion is not happening in isolation. Globally, freshwater demand is projected to increase by up to 25 percent by 2050, while the MENA population alone is expected to grow by roughly 30........