Increasing Agricultural Productivity:
Encouraging Foreign Direct Investments in the COMCEC Region
8
Table 2: Water Resources in the COMCEC Member Countries and the World (2011)
Agricultural
land
Average
Precipitation
in depth
(mm/yr)
IRWR
(km3/yr)
ERWR
(km3/yr)
TRWR
(km3/yr)
TRWR /
Capita
(m3/yr)
Dependency
Ratio
(%)
COMCEC 1,415 48,471 5,378 2,487 7,865 4,759 33.9
World 4,889 207,574 42,370 12,004 54,374 7,974 22.3
COMCEC as %
of World
28.9 23.4 12.7 20.7 14.5
Source:. AQUASTAT database, FAO, 2013.
The COMCEC Member Countries account for only 12.7 percent of the IRWR and 14.5 percent of
the world’s TRWR. Dependency on ERWR is 33.9 percent in the COMCEC Member Countries and
significantly higher compared to 22.3 percent in the world. Based on these statistics, it is fair to
say that clean water supply, as one of the most critical resources for agriculture, is unbalanced in
the COMCEC Member Countries and increasingly this feeds into growing concerns within and
between countries.
Table 3 outlines the top 10 countries with the lowest TRWR per capita per year. Not
surprisingly, the first six countries in this list are all geographically located in the Middle East
and Gulf Region, one of the driest regions in the world.
Table 3: Top 10 COMCEC Member Countries With Lowest TRWR per capita per year (2012 or
latest available year)
COMCEC Member Country TRWR (m 3/capita/year)
Kuwait 7.09
United Arab Emirates 19.0
Qatar 31.0
Yemen 84.7
Saudi Arabia 85.5
Bahrain 87.6
Maldives 93.85
Libya 109.0
Palestine 201.6
Algeria 324.3
Source: FAO. 2013. AQUASTAT database, FAO.
Moreover, 23 COMCEC Member Countries suffer water stress with a TRWR per capita of less
than 1,700 m3 per year. Out of this sample, 17 COMCEC Member Countries suffer water scarcity