More than $120 billion will be invested on water and waste water infrastruc-ture in the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region over the next decade, according to a senior official of Metito.

Fady Juez, its managing director, also said there would be significant investments from Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the UAE. Metito is a specialist company in international water treatment, desalination and wastewater treatment.
Juez, chairing the first Middle East Water and Wastewater Management Conference in Dubai recently, said some 45 million people in the region lacked safe water and more than 80 million lacked safe sanitation.
“This is increasingly alarming since this region is already the driest in the world,” he said. “The good news is that Mena countries are sensing the need to find alternative solutions so they are able to meet the increasing demand for fresh water.”
Juez said the Gulf region remained the largest market for water desalination in the world and local municipalities were seriously examining ways of looking to double existing capacity to meet regional demand. “However, it is North Africa that will experience the greatest growth in desalination with Algeria and Libya experiencing a 300 per cent growth,” he remarked.
Water desalination, specifically membrane processes based on reverse osmosis, is becoming more efficient as more technologically advanced methods are being developed, he observed.
“The price of desalinating one cu m of water has come down more than a third of what it used to be 10 years ago. However, I would like to stress that water desalination may not be the only cost-effective solution for water shortage: demand management, efficiency improvements and development of new sources should be a priority in order to decrease the costs of water,” commented Juez.
The first Middle East Water and Wastewater Management Conference brought together a panel of 20 international and regional speakers to address issues in the areas of privatisation, water demand management, water loss and protection of water resources for the long term.