Water

Nearly 20% of Saudi Arabia’s oil powers desalination, with projections rising to 50% by 2030. Experts warn it should remain a last-resort solution due to high energy and environmental costs.

Egypt’s irrigation system has roots in millennia-old techniques, from Aswan Dam regulation to historic canal networks. The current program builds on this heritage, blending tradition with pressure-based systems and digital monitoring. Watch developments on the GERD dam opening this year from Ethiopia as water volume from the Nile that goes to Egypt may drop dramatically. 

No Saudi water story is complete without NEOM, the high-profile giga-project selling a future of “100% renewable desalination,” circular brine chemistry, and hydrogen-powered industry. Ambition is welcome—Saudi needs moonshots to decouple water from oil.

Rising temperatures, unpredictable rainfall, and more frequent droughts amplify existing disputes. Water scarcity can fuel unrest, as seen in Iran’s Khuzestan protests, and can undermine fragile peace deals in post-conflict states like Libya and Yemen.

If you’ve ever imagined the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region as forever sun-drenched and dry, recent flash floods may challenge that mental...

Iran’s Lake Urmia, once the Middle East’s largest saltwater lake, has shrunk by 90 percent due to mismanagement, dams, and drought. As Tehran pours billions into foreign conflicts, water activists face repression at home. The crisis mirrors Syria’s drought-driven unrest, showing how water scarcity can destabilize entire regions.

Wastewater treatment plants are a hidden source of greenhouse gas emissions, releasing methane, nitrous oxide, and fossil CO₂. A new study calls for smarter monitoring and tailored emission factors. U.S. firms like Jacobs, AECOM, and Black & Veatch are key players in building climate-resilient wastewater infrastructure.

What's that sinking feeling? In Iran, the very ground under your feet may drop away. The issue here isn’t war. The issue is land subsidence, a...

Each November, a quiet city on Italy’s Adriatic coast becomes the epicenter of the world’s circular economy conversation. What began in 1997 as a local waste management trade show has grown into Ecomondo, a global forum for environmental innovation, resource regeneration, and ecological transition.

Climate activist Greta Thunberg is aboard a Gaza-bound humanitarian flotilla (of one) now navigating the eastern Mediterranean, as the Israeli navy signals it is prepared to intercept the vessels enforcing what it calls a “security naval blockade.”

In a sweeping analysis of drylands across Central Asia, scientists have found that natural environmental forces—particularly declining snow levels and rising temperatures—are more responsible for desertification than human activity.

In the volcanic highlands of northern Jordan, north of Amman engineers are mining a natural resource not for energy, but for agriculture. The material: crushed volcanic rock, now processed into a mineral-rich soil that may hold the key to reducing water and fertilizer demand in arid regions.

The land between the Tigris and Euphrates was once a wellspring of invention. Thousands of years before modern irrigation, the Sumerians, Akkadians, Babylonians, and Assyrians carved canals, engineered flood basins, and developed qanat systems—ingenious underground channels that carried water from mountain springs to distant farms.

The United Nations has 17 objectives that paint a more resource-conscious and fair world called the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The sixth mission is to “ensure access to clean water and sanitation for all” by 2030. The turn of the decade will happen before too long, so assessing progress and moments for improvement at this stage is critical. How is SDG 6 going, and what can humanity do to achieve it?

Drought and climate change no longer surprise us—they define today’s water reality. Pape-Dawson meets these trials with practical, site-specific solutions rooted in water sustainability engineering.