Rethinking the Right to Water in the Arab Region - Rami Abi Ammar
Rethinking the Right to Water in the Arab Region - Rami Abi Ammar
The subject of water in the Arab region is one that draws much concern. Mainstream conceptions of this issue define the region as the most water-stressed in the world, grappling with diminishing, scarce water resources amid growing populations. In this view, over 60% of the Arab population lives in areas facing high or very high ‘water stress’, and per capita water availability has dropped by more than 75% over the past 50 years (World Bank, 2018). Today, 13 of the 22 Arab countries fall below the water poverty line of 500 cubic meters per person per year (ESCWA, 2024).
While such statistics are alarming, these conventional indicators of water scarcity often obscure deeper structural issues contributing to unequal access to and distribution of water. Universally applied water stress metrics fail to capture disparities in water use between regions or across sectors and social groups. Water cannot not be understood as just a natural resource, but rather as one embedded in social and political relations, capital and property rights. Scarcity, in this light, is often a product of centralized political control, social hierarchies, economic policy, and patterns of development (Loftus, 2009). These factors influence how water is distributed, who gets access, and under what conditions. Thus, ignoring the socio-ecological dimensions of water risks deepening inequalities and accelerating depletion.
The challenge of water, therefore, is not strictly a technical one. Addressing it requires a critical examination of the developmental paradigms promoted by international financial institutions, that have imparted market logic and centralized control over an essential resource and a historically public good. This forms the foundation for the discussion on the Right to Water, the focus of the seventh edition of the Arab Watch Report (AWR) to be published by the Arab NGO Network for Development (ANND) in 2025, with research led by Roland Riachi, PhD.
The Right to Water, as affirmed by the UN General Assembly in Resolution 64/292 (2010), is the human right to safe, sufficient, acceptable, physically accessible, and affordable water for personal and domestic use. Further detailed in the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights' General Comment No. 15 (2002), this right is considered essential to the realization of all human rights and obliges states to ensure equitable and non-discriminatory access to water. The AWR 2025 expands this framework, advocating for a broader, unconditional right to water—one that includes water-based livelihoods and the democratic participation of communities in water governance.
The Arab region is vast and ecologically diverse, with wide variation in water resources and in the political, social, technological, and environmental contexts that shape access. Yet, the key obstacles to realizing the right to water across this diversity, illustrated in this newsletter, can be broadly categorized into three interlinked dynamics: hegemonic control, governance failure, and neoliberalization.
Water governance in some Arab countries is characterized by hegemonic control. In Palestine, it takes an explicitly colonial form, where water is weaponized as a tool of domination and collective punishment. This strategy is a core component of Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza. Since October 2023, Israel has completely cut off Gaza’s water supply, along with energy needed to operate water facilities. Occupation forces have deliberately targeted water and sanitation infrastructure—destroying approximately 89% of it—while seizing control of 74% of the remaining infrastructure. As a result, water access has plummeted by 94%, with residents receiving only 4.5 liters per person per day—less than half the emergency minimum (Oxfam, 2024).
As Ayman Rabi writes in his article, even prior to its current military campaign and since 2007, the Israeli occupation’s comprehensive blockade on Gaza has denied residents access to adequate water quantities and proper water and sanitation services, restricting the entry of materials necessary for improving infrastructure and essential services, including the maintenance and development of water and sanitation systems. The situation is not too different in the West Bank, where Israel controls over 80% of water resources, service maintenance and development. The Occupation not only controls groundwater in the West Bank – selling it back to Palestinians -but also maintains militarizes access to surface water sources. This produces a great discrepancy in access and use of water. It is estimated that the per capita share of clean freshwater of around 3 million Palestinians in West Bank reaches only 22.4-73 liters per day, in contrast to 369 liters per capita per day consumed by around 700,000 settlers in the West Bank (Al-Haq, 2013; PENGON, 2021).
