Ammon News - By Batool Ghaith

Doha - Engaging women in sustainable water practices is key to unlocking community-based solutions that address both climate change and daily survival needs, according to Mansour Qadir, Deputy Direction United Nations University Institute of Water Environment and Health.

Sustainable water solutions are urgently needed in the Middle East and North Aftica (MENA) region due to accelerating climate change and deepening water crises.

Qadir, as a leading expert on water scarcity and reuse, emphasised that the key is not only in high-tech interventions, but also in empowering the people most affected, especially women.

“While technical solutions for global water scarcity exist, community-based interventions have tremendous potential, especially when women are fully engaged. Qadir told Ammon News.

In many isolated or rural communities, women are the ones who walk hours each day to fetch water, he explained, making them not only key stakeholders but essential agents of change.

“If we engage women at the community level and create a sense of ownership, we can tremendously improve the potential of local water supplies,” he elaborated.

“The whole package of clean water access, economic empowerment, and girls’ education becomes possible when we recognize and invest in the role of women,” Qadir added.

Turning to the region’s broader challenges, Qadir stressed the urgency of innovative action in one of the world’s most water-stressed areas, including Jordan.

He emphasized the need for both large-scale infrastructure and smaller, community-driven interventions that reflect the country’s specific environmental realities.

“Countries like Jordan face worsening water scarcity. We are seeing a mix of large-scale solutions like desalination and wastewater reuse,” he said.

Yet beyond the high-tech solutions, Qadir stressed the vitality of smaller, locally adapted and community-based techniques such as micro-catchment and rainwater harvesting systems.

“These are applicable in those areas where the rainfall is so small, such as in the case of Jordan, where the water that drops through rainfall just goes back to the environment if we do not capture it,” he explained.

Qarir noted that establishing small-scale rainwater harvesting systems, communities could collect that water for purposes such as growing shrubs for fodder and providing water for livestock, practical steps that could make a real difference in rural areas.

He also highlighted the growing interest in weather modification technologies like cloud seeding, which several countries in the MENA region are currently exploring and investing in.

However, Qadir emphasised that there is no set or blanket application of all these technologies which could be used across the region.
“One may work in one place, another in a different place. That’s why it’s so important to have collective action—not only from policymakers and professionals but from community leaders and, more importantly, the active members of the community,” he continued.

“Women must be part of this collective response. Their role is critical and must not be overlooked,” Qadir stated.