“Water may be one of the world’s most precious natural resources, but knowledge is the resource that allows societies to protect it.”
By Dr. Sonia Toumia
As water scarcity intensifies across North Africa, the future of the region will depend not only on dams, desalination plants, and pipelines, but on the people capable of managing water wisely, innovating, and adapting to a changing climate.
In a region where water has always shaped settlement, agriculture, livelihoods, and economic development, the Maghreb is entering a new era of water insecurity. Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, and Tunisia face very different geographical and institutional realities, yet they share a common challenge: freshwater resources are becoming increasingly limited while demand continues to grow. The question is therefore no longer simply how to mobilize more water, but how to develop the knowledge, skills, institutions, and technologies required to manage every available drop more intelligently.
The figures are revealing. According to the latest comparable data compiled by the World Bank from the FAO AQUASTAT database, renewable internal freshwater resources amounted in 2022 to approximately 777 cubic metres per person in Morocco, 346 in Tunisia, 247 in Algeria, 97 in Libya, and only 82 in Mauritania. These figures should not be interpreted as 2026 measurements, but they provide a powerful picture of the structural pressure facing the region.
Water scarcity is also becoming an economic issue. The OECD estimates that the impacts of water scarcity on agriculture, health, and incomes could reduce MENA (Middle East and North Africa) economies’ GDP by between 6 and 14 percent by 2050, compared with a global reduction of less than 1 percent. This is a reminder that water is no longer simply an environmental concern. It is closely connected to food security, employment, public health, social stability, and economic resilience.
For decades, the traditional response to growing water demand was to build. Dams, reservoirs, irrigation networks, groundwater wells, treatment plants, and long-distance transfer systems have played an essential role in supporting Maghreb societies. Today, however, infrastructure alone cannot provide a complete answer. A reservoir cannot create rain, a depleted aquifer cannot be indefinitely exploited, and a sophisticated distribution network cannot perform efficiently if leaks remain undetected or poorly managed.
This is where capacity building becomes critical. The water sector requires professionals who can understand increasingly complex systems and connect different areas of expertise. The hydrologist must increasingly work with the climatologist. The hydraulic engineer needs to cooperate with data specialists. The agronomist must understand remote sensing and precision irrigation. Economists, environmental scientists, geographers, information technology specialists, and public policy experts must increasingly work together rather than in isolation.
The future of water management will therefore depend on hybrid skills. Knowing how to construct a pipeline is important; knowing how to monitor its performance, detect losses, predict failures, optimize energy consumption, and interpret real-time data is becoming equally important. The same principle applies to irrigation, wastewater treatment, groundwater management, and desalination.
Digital transformation offers an extraordinary opportunity. Satellite imagery, geographic information systems, sensors, smart meters, artificial intelligence, and predictive models can help governments and water operators understand consumption and anticipate risks. FAO AQUASTAT already provides a global information system covering more than 180 water-related variables and indicators, including water resources, withdrawals, irrigation, wastewater, and water stress.
Yet technology by itself is never enough. A sophisticated monitoring system has little value if institutions lack people capable of interpreting its information and translating it into decisions. A sensor can measure soil moisture, but it cannot decide whether an irrigation schedule makes economic, environmental, and agricultural sense. Data become meaningful only when knowledge turns them into action.
Agriculture illustrates this challenge particularly well. Across the Maghreb, farming remains one of the largest users of freshwater. At the same time, the region possesses an underused resource: treated wastewater.
A FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization) study covering the five Maghreb countries estimated annual wastewater production at around 2 billion cubic metres, of which approximately 900 million cubic metres are treated, while only about 15 percent is reused.
These figures suggest that the water challenge is not exclusively about discovering new sources. It is also about learning how to use existing resources more efficiently. Treated wastewater, rainwater harvesting, precision irrigation, drought-resistant crops, soil-moisture monitoring, and digital agricultural services could all contribute to reducing pressure on conventional freshwater resources. But each solution requires trained professionals and informed users.
Desalination is another example. For several Maghreb countries, particularly those with extensive coastlines, seawater desalination is becoming an increasingly important component of water-security strategies.
It can provide a valuable buffer against drought and declining freshwater availability. However, desalination requires substantial investment, energy, technical expertise, maintenance, and careful management of environmental impacts. Producing more water does not automatically mean managing water better.
The same principle applies to groundwater. When surface water becomes scarce, communities often turn toward aquifers. But groundwater is not an invisible reservoir without limits. Once extraction exceeds natural recharge for a prolonged period, the consequences can include declining water tables, increasing pumping costs, land degradation, and, in coastal areas, seawater intrusion. Effective groundwater governance therefore requires monitoring, scientific assessment, enforcement, and cooperation between institutions and water users.
The Maghreb also needs to look carefully at the human dimension of water management. The 2026 United Nations World Water Development Report, published by UNESCO, places data, education, training, and capacity development among the central dimensions of sustainable water management. It also highlights a major gender imbalance: women represent less than one in five employees in water utilities in low- and middle-income countries, while women and girls worldwide spend an estimated 250 million hours every day collecting water.
This dimension deserves greater attention in North Africa. Training programmes should not only produce engineers and senior managers. They should also strengthen the capacities of technicians, farmers, local authorities, community organizations, educators, and young people. Women, in particular, should have greater access to technical and managerial careers in the water sector, not only because equality matters, but because water policies are more effective when the people most affected by water insecurity participate in designing solutions.
The five Maghreb countries do not face identical circumstances. Morocco is dealing with prolonged drought and growing pressure on water resources. Tunisia faces severe structural water scarcity while seeking to modernize networks and reduce losses. Algeria is expanding desalination while addressing the performance and reliability of its water systems. Libya has extremely limited renewable freshwater resources and depends heavily on non-renewable sources. Mauritania faces particular challenges linked to rural access, pastoralism, climate vulnerability, and basic water services.
The World Bank data show just how different these pressures can be, with total freshwater withdrawals in 2022 equivalent to 36 percent of internal resources in Morocco, 92 percent in both Algeria and Tunisia, 337 percent in Mauritania, and 817 percent in Libya.
Such differences make a single regional solution impossible. They do not, however, prevent the Maghreb from sharing knowledge. On the contrary, regional cooperation in training, research, data, innovation, and professional development could become one of the most practical forms of water cooperation. Universities, research institutions, public utilities, agricultural organizations, and technology companies could develop joint programmes focused on drought management, groundwater, wastewater reuse, desalination, climate adaptation, and digital water systems.
As a researcher, I believe that one of the most important questions for the Maghreb is not only how much money will be invested in water infrastructure, but how much will be invested in the people who operate, maintain, monitor, and improve those infrastructures. Every new treatment plant should come with a long-term training programme. Every digital water project should create local expertise. Every modern irrigation system should be accompanied by farmer training. Every major water investment should leave behind knowledge, not only concrete and steel.
The future of water security will therefore require a different philosophy. We must move from a culture of emergency response to a culture of anticipation; from isolated projects to integrated systems; from simply producing more water to reducing losses and increasing efficiency; and from viewing training as an additional cost to recognizing it as an essential part of water infrastructure.
The Maghreb still possesses an invaluable resource: its human capital. Its universities, engineers, researchers, technicians, farmers, entrepreneurs, and young digital professionals can become a powerful force for water resilience if they are connected, supported, and given the opportunity to innovate.
Water may be one of the world’s most precious natural resources, but knowledge is the resource that allows societies to protect it.
The Maghreb’s water future will not be secured by technology alone, nor by infrastructure alone. It will depend on the ability to combine science, experience, digital innovation, responsible governance, and human intelligence.
In a region where every cubic metre increasingly matters, the most sustainable reservoir may ultimately be the knowledge we build and share.
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Dr. Sonia Toumia is a Tunisian researcher and journalist holding a PhD in Islamic Studies from Ez-Zitouna University. She is the Coordinator of the Information and Communication Unit at Gifruit and Editor-in-Chief of “Fruits de Tunisie” magazine.
