The scarcity of water resources and increasing gap between demand and available supply of water in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries is a major challenge facing the development sectors. GCC countries have an extremely dry climate with rare rainfall, high evaporation rates and limited non-renewable groundwater resources. At present, all GCC countries, except Oman, fall in the critical water scarcity category. In addition, subsidies and other incentives offered by governments with the aim of increasing the level of food self-sufficiency have contributed to unrestricted use of non renewable groundwater resources. This coupled with a lack of clear policies geared toward optimizing and managing the scarce water supplies within the GCC region has contributed to wasteful and uneconomic practices, as well as to the inefficient mining of non-renewable supplies. However, in recent years, all GCC countries have made substantial progress in their respective campaigns for water resources management, especially in the area of development of non-conventional water resources. Increased collaboration is urgently required in order to satisfactorily implement the numerous action plans that have been envisaged as part of the water resources policies of GCC countries.
