Knowledge & Intelligence Platform
MENA Water Review
The knowledge platform for water in the Middle East & North Africa
Featured
One Sea, One Strait: How 2026 Strikes Exposed the Gulf’s Desalination Vulnerability
About a third of the world’s desalination capacity sits around one narrow, contested sea.
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Water in Morocco
Morocco's rain and surface water are concentrated in the north-west and the mountains, and rainfall varies strongly from year to year.
Water Resources
Surface water and groundwater across the region: the shared rivers, deep aquifers and springs that every other theme depends on.
The Emirati Market
The authorities that procure water infrastructure, how the deals are put together, and what is in the pipeline.
Finding Leaks from Orbit: How Network Loss Became a Data Problem
Satellites, acoustic loggers and smart meters have made leakage easier to find and measure.
Read the briefLatest news
All news →Egypt signs private operation contracts for 11 desalination plants
Operation contractsTehran's five dams hold 383 million cubic metres in mid-October
Drought and storageIstanbul's dams rise by 14 points after four days of rain
Reservoir levelsVeolia joint venture wins five-year contract at Oman's Al Asilah desalination plant
Operation contractsEuphrates runs high at Hit while the south waits for water
Rivers and marshesHeavy rain floods Tripoli
FloodsSouth Lebanon water utility opens a control centre funded by the Red Cross
Digital waterTwo pumping stations restore supply for about 2 million people near Damascus
Humanitarian accessIsrael stockpiles desalination membranes after the algae shutdown
OutagesParts of Grand Tunis face a 36-hour water cut
Water cutsData & Tools
The databases behind the reports: live tenders, the projects register, the atlas, market briefs, price benchmarks and the directory.
Live tenders
Open water tenders from national portals, the World Bank and the UN, refreshed nightly.
Major projects
The schemes that shape supply, the PPP pipeline, and who won what.
Market briefs
Twenty water markets, country by country: demand, financing, PPP framework and buyers.
Region atlas
Plants, dams, conveyances and rivers, with rainfall and population overlays.
Tariffs & benchmarks
What households pay, and what desalinated water is bid at.
Organization directory
The institutions behind the sector: public bodies, regulators, utilities, lenders and companies.
Calendar
Upcoming events
WETEX (Water, Energy, Technology and Environment Exhibition)
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA)
Cairo Water Week 2026
New Cairo, Egypt
Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation, Egypt
17th session of the Arab Ministerial Water Council
Cairo, Egypt
Arab Ministerial Water Council (League of Arab States); listed in the Cairo Water Week programme by Egypt's Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation
The region
Country profiles
Twenty reports, one for every country from Morocco to Iran: resources, institutions, infrastructure and the market each creates.
Lebanon
Lebanon receives more rain than its neighbours in the Levant, and mountain snow sustains about 2,000 springs through the dry season.
Iraq
Iraq lies in the Mesopotamian plain of the Tigris and Euphrates, and most of its river water comes from Turkey, Iran and Syria.
United Arab Emirates
The UAE has little rain and no perennial streams.
Oman
Most of Oman's wadis flow for only hours or days after a storm, and its fresh groundwater lies mainly in the far north and far south.
Background
Knowledge hubs
Region-wide themes, each pairing an in-depth reference file with interactive data and live project intelligence.
Storytelling
Visual Stories
Long-form reporting with maps, photographs and data, on the human side of the numbers in the rest of the platform.
Utilities · Non-revenue water
Reducing Non-Revenue Water Could Provide MENA With New Water
In several of the region’s countries, between a quarter and a half of the water put into city networks earns no revenue. How utilities locate th…
Dead Sea · Jordan, Israel & Palestine
The Disappearing Sea: How Water Diversions Are Shrinking the Dead Sea
The Dead Sea is falling by about a metre a year, and its shoreline is retreating with it. More than 6,000 sinkholes have opened, the Jordan is largely…
Yemen · Groundwater collapse
Sanaa’s Water Crisis: How Unchecked Drilling Overwhelmed an Ancient Water System
In ancient times Yemen was among the world’s leaders in farming a dry country. With the arrival of modern drilling, the water table beneath Sana…
Iraq, Türkiye & Syria · The Tigris and Euphrates
Iraq’s Shrinking Lifelines: How Dams and Drought Are Drying the Tigris and Euphrates
The rivers that sustained some of the earliest irrigation now reach Iraq with less water and more salt. Upstream dams have reduced their flow, the mar…
Analysis
Intelligence
Technology briefs and monthly market briefings.
MENA Water Market Briefing, October 2026
Turbid seawater stops most of Israel’s large desalination plants, Jordan’s water carrier wins United States financing approval, Riyadh East draws five bids and Tunisia’s Sousse plant comes on line.
Read this editionWater for the machines: data centres in the desert
The Gulf is announcing AI campuses at gigawatt scale, with little said about water. What cooling actually draws, what operators disclose, and the column they leave blank.
Banking water underground: the region's other reservoirs
Open reservoirs lose water to the desert sky. Recharge dams, infiltration basins and injection wells store it underground, and Abu Dhabi banked an emergency reserve in its dunes.
Hero video: Asad Ansari and Kenan Turguç (Pexels); AlonaMalakh and livesmart (Pixabay).