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People in the Arab world need fuller and freer information about shrinking water supplies but their governments are withholding it for fear of fuelling unrest, a United Nations expert said on Thursday.

Arable land makes up just 4.2 percent of the Middle East and North Africa and is expected to shrink due to climate change - a potential source of political instability, analysts say, in a region where economic privation has sometimes sparked conflict.

"Arab countries do not disclose enough information on their water out of concern that transparency could fuel unnecessary public concern and unrest," said Hosny Khordagui, regional program director of the UN Development Program (UNDP) Water Governance Program for Arab States.

Disclosing figures on water scarcity might be perceived as reflecting bad management on the part of Arab states and so is generally avoided, he told a UNDP round-table on Arab environmental issues.

"If we have public participation, we would have better management, participation and more justice," Khordagui said, adding that ministers were accountable to those who appointed them and not to the public.

"Don't expect accountability without real democracy and free elections," he said.

People in the Middle East and North Africa have access to an an average of just 1,000 cubic meters of water a year, seven times lower than the worldwide rate, according to the UNDP's Arab Human Development Report.

As climate change takes its toll and the region's populations grow at nearly twice the global average, that figure is projected to shrink to just 460 cubic meters by 2025.

Coordinated water policy will be a challenge in a region where water politics is often seen as a zero-sum game and can be used as a lever in larger political feuds.

"If we lose one more drop of water and our capacity to give Arab citizens their right to food, this is a political issue par excellence," said Ismail Serageldin, a former World Bank environmental expert.

In one example, a temperature rise of 1-1.5 degrees in one area of Sudan in 2030-2060 would slash maize production by 70 percent, the UNDP report said. Such scenarios could be repeated elsewhere in the region.

Agriculture consumes more than 85 percent of water in the region, home to the Fertile Crescent in which the first civilizations of the Middle East emerged. Less water could make it impossible for already poor farmers to earn a livelihood, pushing them to move to overcrowded cities.

Droughts in Syria have already displaced hundreds of thousands of people. A September U.N report found that climate-related natural disasters displaced 20 million people in 2009, nearly four times more than conflicts.

"More people in Yemen will leave their villages because of water and environmental reasons," said Ali Atroos, manager of the planning department in Yemen's Ministry of Water.

Yemen is one of the region's most water-stressed countries, with per capita access to water seven times below the average in Europe. Some villages are pumped water only once a month, Atroos said.
Experts urged immediate action to confront the dire issue.

"Water is a security factor. If people do not have water to drink and to use for food production, that would be a direct threat to national security," said Hassan Janabi, Iraq's permanent ambassador to UN agencies in Rome.

At the MEED's 2010 Arabian Power and Water Summit that started on March 29 in Abu Dhabi, MEED said new power capacity requirement to 2015 is 7,500MW and new desalination requirement to 2015 is 310 million gallons per day, which calls for substantial investment.

The summit raised issues that will need to be dealt with going forward, such as how governments can create commercial and economic frameworks that will ensure that the most economic investment decisions are made. Governments still need to determine what the ideal portfolio for GCC future power generation is and how to integrate alternative fuel sources into existing structures.

Edmund O'Sullivan, MEED Events chairman, said "the purpose of the Arabian Power and Water Summit is to provide a platform for the industry leaders to come together and discuss the best way to meet the key strategic and technical challenges that lie ahead. The success of the power and water industry is vital to the region's growth so it is imperative that the industry's decision makers are fully informed of the different solutions available to fulfill power & water demand." For the first time anywhere in the Middle East, the summit also featured a presentation regarding the challenges Iraq is facing as part of their reconstruction effort.

John Dempsey, generation adviser, Iraq Transition and Assistance Office (ITAO) and Jeff Larkin, country manager - Iraq, Parsons Brinckerhoff, outlined the plans to raise the $26 billion that the country's Minister of Electricity has estimated is needed to refurbish and increase the electrical sector capacity in the country.

"It is of critical importance that companies and individuals have their fingers firmly on the pulse of industry developments and the opportunities within it. The involvement of so many of the region's governmental organizations is testament to the high regard that our annual summit is held within the region's power and water sectors, and the value that it offers delegates," O'Sullivan pointed out.

( The Saudi Gazette )

The Investment Authority in Thi-Qar is about to reach an agreement with private and government banks in the province to provide guarantees to Turkish company Austm. It would provide loans to local investors to construct two residential areas in Shatrah.

Head of IPCC, Dr. Ismail Aboudi said that the authority has set up a workshop for local investors, businessmen and managers with presidents of private and government banks in the province.

General Manager, Abdullah Abu Abdullah, said that the company planned to create the biggest European style residential project. The first complex includes  45 buildings consisting of 8 floors each and 2, 200 m per apartment on 30 acres of land. An area of 200 acres is allocated to the second Complex to create 1400 villas, each unit consisting of two stories., An area of 2250 m also contains schools, mosques and other public utilities in addition to solar energy electricity.

Both projects are among the most unique architectural and engineering projects in Iraq and work will start next month after the completion of legal and technical approvals.

( Iraq Directory )

Iraq's Majnoon oilfield is targeting production of 175,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day in 2012, a senior Royal Dutch Shell executive said on Monday.

Iraq's largest field is currently pumping at 45,000 boe/d, Shell's Mounir Bouaziz, Vice-President New Business LNG for the Middle East and North Africa, told an industry event.

Shell and Malaysia's Petronas signed a final contract earlier this year to develop the Majnoon oilfield, one of the world's biggest.

"We have already started work at Majnoon...we have already taken over operations," Bouaziz told Reuters on the sidelines.

"The effective (start) date was on March 1."

The eventual production target for the field is 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd).

Shell and Petronas won the rights in an auction held in Baghdad in December for the field in southern Iraq, estimated to hold 12.6 billion barrels of oil.

The 20-year development contract is one of several deals that Iraq has sealed to try to catapult the country to third place from 11th in the league of oil producing nations.

GAS

Shell has not yet reached a final agreement on a natural gas venture around the southern oil hub of Basra, Bouaziz said.

Earlier this month Iraq's oil minister Hussain al-Sharistani said the OPEC member had extended a memorandum of understanding with Shell on the venture, but a final deal would be left to the new government.

Iraq has been working to finalise a multi-billion-dollar joint venture between its South Gas Company, Shell and Mitsubishi, that would capture huge amounts of gas now being wasted and use it in the domestic market or for exports.

Bouaziz said that delays in capturing the flared gas was costing Iraq about $50 a second.

Iraq is losing 1 billion cubic feet per day (cfd) of gas through flaring, mostly from the south, Bouaziz said.

"What they are flaring now is sufficient to produce power generation for a country like Jordan, twice," Bouaziz said.

"People are getting an average of two hours of electricity a day, there are plans to add power generation but that needs fuel...gas is the natural solution."

Bouaziz said that the basic infrastructure was already in place to start capturing the gas being burned.

"But the task to really get it to work, to improve it, to upgrade it and increase the capacity is huge because of a legacy of many, many years of lack of maintenance and underdevelopment," he said.

Bouaziz said Iraq could start exporting gas "very very quickly".

Bouaziz said the construction of Shell's Pearl gas-to-liquids (GTL) project in Qatar is expected to be completed by the end of 2010, with a ramp up in production expected to start in 2011.

"This will take 12 months," he said.

In cooperation with the local government, the U.S. reconstruction team has inaugurated an electricity transformer station that supplies power to 10 neighborhoods in Diwaniya.

“The station will reduce the load currently placed on the stations of al-Jazaer and al-Malaab,” a media advisor in the team, Ahmed al-Quseer, told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

The cost of the project was $7 million U.S. dollars, he added.

( Aswat Al Iraq )

Aveva Group plc, one of the world's leading providers of engineering data and design IT systems to the plant, power and marine industries, today announced that State Industrial Design and Consultation Company (SIDCCO), one of the largest EPC contractors in Iraq, has selected Aveva Plant solutions for their ongoing and future projects in Iraq.

SIDCCO is owned by the Ministry of Industrial and Minerals. As one of the largest EPC contractors in Iraq, SIDCCO offers services ranging from feasibility studies to turnkey constructions. Ministry of Industry and Mineral Companies, Ministry of Oil Companies and Ministry of Electricity are among the biggest clients of the company.

Ali Al-Naama, SIDCCO Director General, comments, "We are impressed by Aveva Plant's engineering and business benefits, which make it possible to work in the most complex projects by enabling coordination amongst various disciplines in a clash-free environment. We look forward to benefiting from Aveva solutions for more productivity and site rework reduction. SIDCCO's engineering and design teams are currently having an intensive training to be able to start implementing and using Aveva's solutions immediately."

Louay Dahmash, Vice President of Aveva Middle East, said "Aveva has increased its presence in the Middle East despite the economic downturn. We are very excited to be entering such a promising market and being a part of Iraq's reconstruction projects with SIDCCO. I am confident that Aveva will continue proving itself with its proven and evolving technology in Iraq, which will play a great role for Aveva's growth in the region."

Aveva Plant is a set of integrated applications for plant engineering, design and design management providing the fastest, most productive and risk-free toolset to design, build and revamp plant of any size and complexity. Aveva Plant provides integration of engineering and 3D design data, flexibility in the choice of engineering authoring tools such as P&ID applications, the most productive 3D plant design solution in the world, and concurrent global project execution.

The Iraqi Electricity Ministry has been able to produce lighting columns at competitive pricing.

“The prices of produced columns are greatly reduced in comparison to those on the local market,” a media source from the Ministry told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

He said that the pillars were produced by the Ministry’s own efforts.

( Aswat Al Iraq )

Iraq's finance minister, Bayan Jabor has said that the country has raised $2.1bn from local banks to fund electricity projects, Reuters has reported.

In 2008, Iraq signed multi-billion dollar deals with General Electric and Siemens to add nearly 9,000 megawatts of capacity over the next few years. Iraq's current electricity capacity is 7,500 megawatts, far short of the country's requirement of 12,000 megawatts.

Basra province is to allocate ID200 billion ($170m) to upgrading the province’s sewerage systems, and a  further ID100 ($85m) billion to its electricity supply.

“Basra will get revenues from oil exports and border crossings,” Basra Governor Shaltagh Abod said in a press conference on Wednesday, attended by Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

He said that the plan will be implemented when funds are available.

The oil-rich city of Basra lies 590 km south of Baghdad.

( Aswat Al Iraq )

A Turkish barge for electricity generation is scheduled to arrive on Monday in the port of Basra, and will supply power to the national grid.

The Minister of Electricity Karim Wahid said in an interview that the barge will be installed at the port of Umm Qasr, while a second barge will arrive on 15^th May, and will be installed at Khor Al-Zubair.

"They will have a capacity of 250 megawatts each", Wahid added.

(Eye Media Company)

The issue of power shortages is related to water shortages, Electricity Minister Kareem Waheed said.

Waheed said water shortages have forced his ministry to redirect investments in this vital sector.

Power outages in Iraq may last up to 20 hours a day.

Waheed said volumes of water reaching Iraq have dropped substantially .

Iraq relies on the Tigris and Euphrates, but both originate in neighboring states.

“Water volumes reaching Iraq from both rivers amounted to 79 billion cubic meters a year. It has dropped to 49 billion cubic meters and will slump to 33 billion cubic meters a year in 2020,” he said.

Water is not only needed for hydro-electric power but massive amounts of water are needed to cool fuel-driven Iraqi power plants.

Facing more drops in water volumes reaching Iraq, “we have decided to go for modern power plants with large capacity,” he said.

He said the new power plants would only need minimum water for cooling as they will rely on closed circuits.

“The water in the basins of our rivers is for drinking and cultivation and not for industrial purposes,” Waheed said.

Khayoon Saleh