The Middle East is one of the driest regions in the world and is struggling with increasing water deficits. Scarce freshwater resources cannot meet the ever-increasing demand for water; vital groundwater resources are already severely overexploited and their quality compromised by salinization. In addition, ongoing political tensions in the region make joint transnational water management difficult. To avoid an escalation of the regional water crisis, the SALAM consortium, together with partners from Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Territories, is focusing on transboundary water transfer strategies. The required freshwater can be obtained through seawater desalination in both the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea, from where it would be transferred to regional demand centers.
www.iwrm-salam.de/ At the final conference, we presented the main products and solutions we developed as part of the Salam initiative. In the project, STEP was the leader of the desalination and energy work package. We developed three key products that address the region-specific challenges of desalination and renewable energy.
Key Product 1: Onshore and offshore solutions for large-scale seawater desalination on the Mediterranean coast.
Key Product 2: Renewable energy for seawater desalination in the Middle East: Aqaba case study.
Key Product 3: Innovative water-energy SWAP concept between Israel and Jordan.
