This book is the result of a joint research effort led by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and involving the Royal Scientific Society of Jordan, the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, and the Palestine Health Council. It discusses opportunities for enhancement of water supplies and avoidance of overexploitation of water resources in the Middle East. Based on the concept that ecosystem goods and services are essential to maintaining water quality and quantity, the book emphasizes conservation, improved use of current technologies, and water management approaches that are compatible with environmental quality.

Managing Water Demand provides a comprehensive account of the tools used to manage water demand in the MENA region. The vast arid and semi-arid regions of the Middle East and North Africa region (MENA) constitute 85% of the region's land area and are home to approximately 60% of the region's population. Limited water resources pose severe constraints on people's economic and social progress, testing their resilience and threatening their livelihoods. Rainfall is not only scarce and unpredictable, but the region is also subject to frequent and severe droughts. Available surface water is declining and the over-pumping of groundwater beyond natural recharge rates is occurring, lowering the water table and causing an increase in groundwater salinity and ecological degradation. Water Demand Management (WDM) is about governance and tools that motivate people and their activities to regulate the amount and manner in which they access, use and dispose of water to alleviate pressure on freshwater supplies. It is also about protecting water quality. The development and promotion of such WDM practices, primarily for governments in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, have constituted the core objectives supported by Canada's International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and its partners through the Water Demand Management Forums. Managing Water Demand provides a comprehensive account of the tools used to manage water demand in the MENA region. A critical review is presented of the efficacy of WDM techniques in the areas of wastewater reuse, water valuation, public-private partnerships and decentralization, and participatory irrigation management. This book will provide some of the necessary knowledge required to further promote WDM in the MENA region, while providing insight into the work required for much needed change to improve water governance.

People use lots of water for drinking, cooking and washing, but significantly more for producing things such as food, paper and cotton clothes. The water footprint is an indicator of water use that looks at both direct and indirect water use of a consumer or producer. Indirect use refers to the 'virtual water' embedded in tradable goods and commodities, such as cereals, sugar or cotton. The water footprint of an individual, community or business is defined as the total volume of freshwater that is used to produce the goods and services consumed by the individual or community or produced by the business. This book offers a complete and up-to-date overview of the global standard on water footprint assessment as developed by the Water Footprint Network. More specifically it: o Provides a comprehensive set of methods for water footprint assessment o Shows how water footprints can be calculated for individual processes and products, as well as for consumers, nations and businesses o Contains detailed worked examples of how to calculate green, blue and grey water footprints o Describes how to assess the sustainability of the aggregated water footprint within a river basin or the water footprint of a specific product o Includes an extensive library of possible measures that can contribute to water footprint reduction

The American Water Works Association Research Foundation (AWWARF) and 22 municipalities, water utilities, water purveyors, water districts and water providers funded this study. Goals of this research included: Providing specific data on the end uses of water in residential settings across the continent; Assembling data on disaggregated indoor and outdoor uses; Identifying variations in water used for each fixture or appliance according to a variety of factors; and Developing predictive models forecast residential water demand. This report represents a time and place snapshot of how water is used in single-family homes in twelve North American locations. Similarities and differences among 'end users' were tabulated for each location, analyzed and summarized. Great care was taken to create a statistically significant representative sample of customer for each of the twelve locations. However, these twelve locations are not statistically representative of all North American locations.