ESCWA Water Development Report 2: State of Water Resources in the ESCWA Region

There is a growing concern among the international community that a pending water crisis is threatening the entire global population, not only those living in arid to semi-arid areas. There is also a consensus on the need to periodically update the information on water resources across the world because of the rapidly changing situation. Hence, the United Nations established the World Water Assessment Programme (WWAP), with the primary objective of producing a comprehensive analysis on the global water situation in the form of a report published every three years. The first World Water Development Report (WWDR)1 was published in 2003, the second in 20062 and the third is scheduled for 2009.

The first report in the ESCWA series on water development, published in 2003, addressed the
vulnerability of the region to socio-economic drought.3 This Report, the second in the series, focuses on the state of water resources.

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1 United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), The First United Nations World Water Development Report: Water for People, Water for Life (22 March 2003), available at: http://www.unesco.org/water/wwap/wwdr1/table_contents/index.shtml.
2 UNESCO, The Second United Nations World Water Development Report: Water, a Shared Responsibility (22 March 2006), available at: http://www.unesco.org/water/wwap/wwdr2/table_contents.shtml.
3 United Nations, ESCWA Water Development Report 1: Vulnerability of the Region to Socio-economic Drought (United Nations, New York, 2005), Sales No. E.05.II.L.17.