Water wars in the Arab region: illusion or reality? | the Arab world



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Algeria- “Focusing on water wars and neglecting the possibilities for cooperation, solutions and alternatives is one manifestation of media bias. the water.

During a conference entitled “How to cover the themes of cross-border rivers” within the framework of the activities of the Forum for Scientific Journalism, she underlined that there have never been wars or armed conflicts around water in recent history, despite constant media indications of their imminence.

The Science Journalism Forum (SJF), which is held on the Internet, launched its activities in its second edition on Monday August 30 and lasted 4 days, with the participation of more than 150 speakers from science journalists from different countries of the world, through which they exchanged experiences on How to successfully prepare scientific articles and discuss emerging topics in the scientific press.

Virtual water and water wars

Spokeswoman Rehab Abdel Mohsen went on to say that the scientific support is based on what British geographer Tony Allan, winner of the Stockholm Water Prize in 2008, said in a research paper we did not attend. to wars in a very arid region. like the Middle East, which receives about half of the amount of water it needs, and the reason is to compensate these countries for this shortage of water, and therefore in agricultural capacity by imports. these countries import are in fact virtual water.

And virtual water in Tony Allen’s concept is the volume of water contained in consumer goods such as vegetables, fruits, clothing, etc., which move from country to country by the trade bias.

“The Arab world is one of the driest regions in the world, but it is working to address the lack of agricultural capacity by importing products to bridge the gap between the water available and necessary for the realization of development plans. ”Said Rehab Abdel Mohsen.

Under the theme of the symposium, the speaker said that in the Arab world there are many rivers, but there are 3 rivers considered to be long, the Nile, the Tigris and the Euphrates, which are rivers. that come from non-Arab countries, which can complicate negotiations on them.

Rehab Abdel Mohsen won 3 Nile Media Awards in water journalism last May (communication sites)

The future of water journalism

Although the question of water in the Arab world is considered to be one of the subjects present in the agendas and problems of the Arab citizen, it has not taken on its natural dimension in the scientific press, for several reasons, the most important of which is important is the lack of journalists specialized in the water field, and the sensitivity of the subject which appears in the files of national security in the region. As you can see Rehab Abdel Mohsen.

She continues that this sensitivity creates challenges for the reporter during coverage, including the lack of information and data on water, and the unwillingness of sources to comment on matters. However, on the other hand, there are incentives – as Rehab Abdel Mohsen puts it – that can spur journalists in the Arab world to cover the water. The answer is simply that oil doesn’t kill, but water is a matter of life and death. “

It should be noted that the science journalist Rehab Abdel Mohsen won 3 prizes, namely the prize for the best journalist, the best published electronic subject and the best published printed subject, within the framework of the competitions “Nile Media Awards” which took place in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa on May 7. As part of the activities of the celebration, which was organized by the Nile Basin Initiative in cooperation with a number of international institutions, including the Stockholm Water Research Center “SIWI”, the Institute for Education on water “IHE Delft” and the German Foundation for Development “G” IZ (GIZ) and MCT Corporation (MCT).

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