The Political Economy of Water in the MENA Region: a Cross-Regional Assessment

拟议的研究将评估中东和北非国家在从现在到本世纪中期努力实现水安全时所面临的挑战。它将确定可能受到最严重影响的国家和人口群体。它将研究可能影响该地区水安全的所有各种因素，包括政府的有效性（或其他），气候变化，人口增长，污染和地下水的不可持续消费。特别要注意马格里布国家（北非减去埃及），因为英国和美国的研究人员没有像对影响中东的水问题那样彻底地研究这些国家的水问题。该研究将审查中东和北非地区各国政府如何做好准备，以应对它们在努力确保本国有足够的可接受质量的水供应方面所面临的挑战。报告将评估中东和北非地区国家之间建设性合作的前景，以及在前景不佳的情况下，特定国家之间因水资源问题而加剧紧张甚至冲突的可能性。最后，报告将建议英国可以采取哪些切实可行的措施来帮助这些国家更好地应对这些挑战。任何此类建议都将避免乌托邦式的解决方案，因为这些解决方案很可能被证明是浪费英国纳税人的钱。

The proposed research will assess the challenges facing MENA countries as they attempt to achieve water security, over the period between now and the middle of this century. It will identify the countries and demographic groups likely to be most severely affected. It will look at all the various factors which could affect water security in the region, including the effectiveness (or otherwise) of governments, climate change, population growth, pollution and the unsustainable consumption of ground-water. Particular attention would be paid to the countries of the Maghreb (North Africa minus Egypt), as British and US researchers have not examined water issues in these countries as thoroughly as they have those affecting the Middle East. The research will examine how well-equipped individual MENA governments are to deal with the challenges they face in trying to ensure that their countries have adequate supplies of water of acceptable quality. It will assess the prospects for constructive cooperation among MENA states and, where those prospects seem poor, the likelihood of increased tension or even conflict between particular states over water.Finally, it will suggest what the UK might realistically do to help these countries better address these challenges. Any such recommendations will avoid utopian solutions that would be likely to prove to be a waste of UK taxpayers' money.