The 2025 Arab Watch Report on Economic and Social Rights,
dedicated to the right to water and climate change and launched by the Arab NGO
Network for Development in Amman earlier this week, revealed alarming
challenges facing tens of millions of Arab citizens in exercising their basic
right to access safe drinking water and adequate sanitation services.اضافة اعلان
The figures presented in the report are, by themselves,
sufficient to reopen the debate on water policies in the Arab region. Around 50
million people in the Arab world do not have access to safe drinking water,
while nearly 154 million lack proper sanitation services. These are not merely
technical figures or sectoral statistics; they are indicators of a deep
rights-based and developmental gap that affects public health, human dignity,
food security, and opportunities for a decent life.
The importance of the report lies in the fact that it
removes the issue of water from the narrow framework that confines it to dams,
pipes, and networks, and places it in its broader context as an issue of social
justice, governance, development, climate change, conflicts, and water
domination. The crisis is not caused by natural scarcity alone, despite its
importance; it is also linked to the way resources are managed, who controls
decisions about them, and how water is distributed between cities and rural
areas, between affluent and marginalized groups, and between stable areas and
those affected by wars and occupations.
The report indicates that climate change is intensifying
pressure on water resources, but its impact is not felt equally by all. The
poor, small farmers, rural communities, women, girls, refugees, and workers are
the most exposed to the consequences of drought, rising temperatures, and the
declining reliability of water sources. In this sense, water cannot be
separated from issues of poverty, work, migration, health, and education. The
absence of safe water means additional burdens on families, declining agricultural
production, rising living costs, and greater risks for children, women, and
older persons.
The gravity of the situation increases when we recognize
that the Arab region is among the most vulnerable regions in the world to the
impacts of climate change, despite its limited contribution to global emissions
compared with major industrialized countries. This clearly raises the question
of climate justice: Who pays the price of the crisis? And who has the capacity
to adapt to it? Countries and communities with the least access to financing, technology,
and infrastructure are often the most exposed to droughts, floods, land
degradation, and the depletion of groundwater resources.
The crisis deepens further when water becomes linked to
occupation, wars, and conflicts. In Palestine, Yemen, Syria, Sudan, and more
recently Lebanon, as well as in other conflict-affected contexts, water is no
longer merely a natural resource. It can become a tool of control, pressure,
and collective punishment through the destruction of infrastructure,
restrictions on resource development, or the undermining of sovereignty over
water sources. Here, the right to water becomes part of the right to sovereignty,
security, and protection from violence.
Another challenge lies in governance and the commodification
of water.
Economic transformations have contributed to treating water as a
commodity, expanding the role of companies and private interests, while
citizens and local communities have often remained outside decision-making
processes. This approach deepens inequality because it makes access to an
essential service dependent on the ability to pay rather than on a human right.
Defending the right to water is no longer an environmental
luxury or a limited service-related demand. It is a defense of the right to
life, dignity, and development. The Arab region, where thirst and inequality
are increasing together, needs fair, transparent, and participatory water
policies that prioritize people over markets, and the most vulnerable groups
over those most able to pay. It also needs to link water management to climate
justice, protect resources from depletion and pollution, and strengthen public
accountability. Water is not an ordinary commodity; it is the foundation of
survival and a key entry point for any just and sustainable development.
