The water supply and demand balance in most of ESCWA member countries is in serious deficit. The average share of renewable freshwater in 8 out of 14 member countries is 500 cubic meters per capita per year, or less than half of the internationally accepted water poverty threshold of 1,000 cubic meters per capita per year. Desalination, which has been practiced for more than 50 years in the ESCWA region, has emerged as the primary response to water scarcity in several countries.

Speak your mind in pictures! If you have ideas for a more sustainable UN and fancy yourself a photographer, share your pictures with us and be an agent of change. To celebrate the World Environment Day 2011, Greening the Blue – a UN program to make all its agencies climate neutral and green - and the UN Photographic Society have joined forces to launch the first in-house photographic competition that celebrates and inspires efforts to make the UN more sustainable. Visions of a Sustainable UN is the central theme of this photo competition.