The Dubai Ministry of Environment and Water has revealed education is the key to addressing water scarcity issues in the Middle East.
“We need to start today to reach our goals in 25 years for water scarcity. We need to educate kids on these issues,” said Yousrey Elsharkawi, food security expert at the Ministry of Environment and Water.
Dr Saleem Ali, principal advisor, Asian Society leadership group on water scarcity, offered a different viewpoint: “Awareness is important but it is also overrated. There are many studies that suggest awareness is not good enough, you need policy makers to make decisions.”
Both experts were speaking at a World Water day event in Dubai, and Elsharwaki went on to demand action rather than just talk.
“We have a mix of cultures so we need a very high quality awareness of water scarcity. We see this problem in water security; every day we have a conference, we have a meeting, we wear a nice tie, very nice presentations, very nice expertise but we are very far from the field, we are at 0.5 and we need to get to 100,” he concluded.
