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UN PhotoGENEVA / MIDDLE EAST DRINKING WATER INTERVIEW
STORY: GENEVA / MIDDLE EAST DRINKING WATER INTERVIEW
TRT: 04:20
SOURCE: UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 26 MARCH 2026, BEIRUT, LEBANON / FILE
FILE
1. Close up, United Nations flag
26 MARCH 2026, BEIRUT, LEBANON
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Ziad Khayat, Senior Sustainable Development Officer, Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA):
“The water access and management in the Middle East and in the Arab region is characterized by severe and growing scarcity, which places a significant pressure on already limited resources. In fact, 19 out of the 22 Arab countries fall below the water scarcity threshold, which is 1,000 cubic meters per year, and 13 below the absolute water scarcity threshold. We have around 50, 51 million people, which is around 11 percent of the population, lacking access to basic drinking water services.”
FILE
3. Close up, United Nations flag
26 MARCH 2026, BEIRUT, LEBANON
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Ziad Khayat, Senior Sustainable Development Officer, Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA):
“The GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council countries) has invested largely in non-conventional water resources and desalination. Today, over 40 percent of the world's desalination capacity is located in the GCC, using more than 400 desalination plants. Nearly 40 million people in the GCC, and that's around 65 percent of the population, depend largely, to varying degrees on desalinated water from the Gulf. So, for places like Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, UAE, to a large extent they're fully served with desalinated water from the Gulf.”
FILE
5. Close up, United Nations flag
26 MARCH 2026, BEIRUT, LEBANON
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Ziad Khayat, Senior Sustainable Development Officer, Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA):
“If the conflict escalates further and desalination plans are hit, the disruption of desalination plants would affect the water supply to millions of people. In addition to a direct hit, many of these desalination plants are also linked to power stations and power supply. So, even if power facilities are affected, these desalination plants will also be affected, affecting the water supply immediately to millions of people before other actions can be taken to remedy such attacks. Also, any contamination to the Gulf, the waters in the Gulf, which are the intakes for these desalination plants, would also affect the desalination plants in the Gulf.”
FILE
7. Close up, United Nations flag
26 MARCH 2026, BEIRUT, LEBANON
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Ziad Khayat, Senior Sustainable Development Officer, Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA):
“Attacks on any civilian infrastructure that supplies water to the population at large, is a war crime. It's a breach of international humanitarian law. And more importantly, it is a humanitarian disaster in the Gulf, where millions and millions of people depend on such facilities.”
FILE
9. Close up, United Nations flag
26 MARCH 2026, BEIRUT, LEBANON
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Ziad Khayat, Senior Sustainable Development Officer, Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA):
“There are multi-layered systems designed to manage a scenario such as an attack on a desalination facility or contamination of the Gulf water streams. Some of these include strategic reserves, whether they are desalinated reserves or drawing on groundwater resources, mobile desalination units, residential storage, and bottled water stockpiles. And most importantly, a lot of the Gulf countries have invested in strategic reserves, whether using managed aquifer recharge as strategic reserves, or constructing large storage tanks. But I think infrastructure alone will not be enough. What's needed is public awareness, also by reducing consumption of the public, and that could help and give time to the governments to react to any emergencies, such as an attack on a desalination plant.”
FILE
11. Close up, United Nations flag
26 MARCH 2026, BEIRUT, LEBANON
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Ziad Khayat, Senior Sustainable Development Officer, Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA):
“We hope that negotiations and leaders reach to a point where water is a connector, where water is a peace pathway, rather than a conflict pathway, in a very water-scarce region.”
FILE
13. Close up, United Nations flag
26 MARCH 2026, BEIRUT, LEBANON
14. SOUNDBITE (English) Ziad Khayat, Senior Sustainable Development Officer, Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA):
“More than 90 percent of water and desalination facilities have gone out of service, either destroyed or disconnected from an infrastructure. With the infrastructure system collapse, thousands of families are left with no option but to rely on contaminated, salty, undrinkable water. This is a humanitarian crisis, it's a catastrophe which is continuing, unfortunately, due to the blockade, and with a huge cost to repair it.”
FILE
15. Close up, United Nations flag
A senior official at the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) today (26 Mar) warned that if the Middle East conflict escalates further and desalination plants are hit, “the disruption would affect the water supply to millions of people.”
Ziad Khayat, who is a Senior Sustainable Development Officer at ESCWA, noted that water access and management in the Middle East and in the Arab region “is characterized by severe and growing scarcity, which places a significant pressure on already limited resources.”
Khayat said there are “around 50, 51 million people, which is around 11 percent of the population, lacking access to basic drinking water services.”
Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member states, he said, have “invested largely in non-conventional water resources and desalination,” with more than 400 desalination plants, and nearly 40 million people (65 percent of the population), depending “to varying degrees on desalinated water from the Gulf.”
Khayat said places like Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, UAE, "to a large extent, they're fully served with desalinated water from the Gulf.”
In addition to a direct hit, he said, “many of these desalination plants are also linked to power stations and power supply. So, even if power facilities are affected, these desalination plants will also be affected, affecting the water supply immediately to millions of people.” He added that “any contamination to the Gulf, the waters in the Gulf, which are the intakes for these desalination plants, would also affect the desalination plants in the Gulf.”
The ESCWA official stressed that “attacks on any civilian infrastructure that supplies water to the population at large, is a war crime. It's a breach of international humanitarian law. And more importantly, it is a humanitarian disaster in the Gulf, where millions and millions of people depend on such facilities.”
He noted that “a lot of the Gulf countries have invested in strategic reserves, whether using managed aquifer recharge as strategic reserves, or constructing large storage tanks,” but warned that “infrastructure alone will not be enough” and “what's needed is public awareness, also by reducing consumption of the public, and that could help and give time to the governments to react to any emergencies, such as an attack on a desalination plant.”
Khayat expressed hope that “negotiations and leaders reach to a point where water is a connector, where water is a peace pathway rather than a conflict pathway in a very water-scarce region.”
Turning to the situation in Gaza, he said “more than 90 percent of water and desalination facilities have gone out of service, either destroyed or disconnected from an infrastructure. With the infrastructure system collapse, thousands of families are left with no option but to rely on contaminated, salty, undrinkable water.”
Khayat said, “this is a humanitarian crisis, it's a catastrophe which is continuing, unfortunately, due to the blockade and with a huge cost to repair it.”
