According to Iran’s water legislation, three ministries are directly responsible for water resources assessment and development, and namely are : The Ministry of Energy (MoE) , The Ministry of Agriculture (MoA), and The Department of the Environment (DoE).

Sustainable water resource management in Iraq has no shortage of challenges. Some of Iraq’s water hardships, like seasonal floods and droughts, occur naturally. Many of the most disruptive and destructive problems are, however, man-made: water infrastructure debilitated from decades of war and neglect; inefficient and outdated agricultural practices; rapid population growth and urbanization; competing water management approaches within transboundary river systems; and the looming crisis of climate change. The government of Iraq has plans to address the situation but it remains to be seen whether major reform will transpire.

Presently, Iraq is contending with two types of water quality issues. One is salinity, the other is the concentration of pollutants in the water related to municipal, industrial and agricultural activities that introduce return flows into freshwater sources.

It is essential to take immediate measures to prevent potential water shortage. Thus, demand-oriented management should be the focus rather than supply-oriented management. Demand-oriented management is provided by efficiently using water resources through limiting demand on water, and setting institutional, economic and administrative incentives to save water. It is essential for water resources management to be flexible and effective enough to adapt to changing climate conditions, dry spells, and new precipitation patterns.

In 1997, the World Bank described the water situation in Gaza as an “emergency state of affairs”. Yet nearly 20 years on, the levels of pumping have only increased, pollution has worsened and large parts of the water infrastructure in the area have been damaged or destroyed. Why was Gaza’s “emergency state of affairs” left to deteriorate beyond the point of repair?

, in February 2015, the US government provided a grant to the Jordanian government to launch a public awareness campaign in the Zarqa Governorate, in conjunction with water and sewage projects overseen by the Ministry of Water and Irrigation.

The Water Authority developed a master plan for the water sector in 2012, which outlines problems and potential solutions for improving water efficiency in the country.

With much of its land an arid, inhospitable desert, the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, one of the world’s driest countries, threatens to die of thirst. Analysts have long warned that Jordan, saddled with shrinking renewable resources and a quickly growing population, faced a reckoning. In recent years, however, the challenges confronting this parched kingdom have accelerated.

Fanack Water speaks to Tawfiq Habashneh, Secretary General of the Water Authority of Jordan, about supplying water to a growing population.

Jordan’s water resources