Qatar and GCC water security

Abstract: The significant wealth in natural gas and oil makes Qatar the country of the highest income per capita in the world. Meanwhile, Qatar is among the world’s poorest countries in natural fresh water resources. The water scarcity severely limits agriculture food production. Agriculture in Qatar depends mainly on the over-exploited, depleted, and quality deteriorated ground water (GW). The use of GW for agriculture cannot be continued. Water scarcity is the main obstacle to achieve the food self-sufficiency. The possibility of using Qatar’s abundant energy to generate desalted seawater or wastewater treatment for agriculture purposes is thought by many. This possibility is studied in this paper, along with the interdependent relation between water, energy, and agriculture (and thus food).