The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) is suffering from varying degrees of a water crisis. While the region’s water challenge is an enduring one, new problems add layers of complexity and perhaps fragility and instability. Meeting the water challenge requires a better governance of water resources, both internal and transboundary; with a view to constantly renewing the infrastructure and adopting modern technologies. Improved water management, in turn, will contribute to the amelioration of the existing conflicts in the region whether local, country-based or regional.

Vakur Sümer is Director of the Eurasian research Institute, Hoca Akhmet Yassawi University, Almaty, Kazakhstan. He is also Associate Professor at the selcuk University’s Department of International relations in Konya, Turkey. His research interests include environmental policies and law in Turkey and crossborder cooperation on those matters.

Ayşegül Kibaroğlu is Professor at the Department of Political science and International relations, MEF University. Her research focuses on the role of water management in transboundary and international contexts.