Source: AlertNet/Reuters

By Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent

20 March 2011, Oslo - The United Nations should promote "hydro-diplomacy" to defuse any tensions over water in regions like the Middle East and North Africa where scarce supplies have the potential to spark future conflicts, experts said on Sunday.

They said the U.N. Security Council should work out ways to bolster cooperation over water in shared lakes or rivers, from the Mekong to the Nile, that are likely to come under pressure from a rising world population and climate change.

The Middle East and North Africa are the regions most at risk of conflict over scarce water supplies, they said, but history shows "water wars" are very rare.

"We think that water is an issue that would be a appropriate for the U.N. Security Council," Zafar Adeel, chair of UN-Water, told Reuters ahead of a meeting of experts in Canada this week to discuss water and security.

U.N. studies project that 30 nations will be "water scarce" in 2025, up from 20 in 1990. Eighteen of them are in the Middle East and North Africa, with Libya and Egypt among those added to the 1990 list that includes Israel and Somalia.

Water scarcity is when each person has access to 1,000 or fewer cubic metres of water a year.

UN-Water coordinates water-related activities of all U.N. agencies. March 22 is "World Water Day" in the U.N. calendar.

"The world's top ranked water conflict hotspot is the Arab region, comprised of the Middle East and North Africa," according to a statement about the March 21-23 talks in Toronto.

Adeel said the U.N. should try to promote past traditions of rivals cooperating over supplies in a form of "hydro-diplomacy".

For the complete article, please see AlertNet/Reuters.