Addressing water and land challenges at COP16

Addressing water and land challenges at COP16

Addressing water and land challenges at COP16
Agriculture consumes around 85 percent of Saudi Arabia’s water. (Shutterstock)
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Standing on a rocky outcrop on the outskirts of Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, one cannot help but be struck by the vast expanse of arid land that stretches endlessly to the horizon.

The rolling dunes and rugged terrain tell a story of resilience and adaptability. But behind this harsh beauty lies an urgent crisis. According to the World Bank, three-quarters of the region’s arable land is already degraded, and 60 percent of the population faces water scarcity — a figure that is expected to reach 100 percent by 2050.

Water scarcity and land degradation are not just environmental issues. They are existential threats to the Kingdom and beyond. With no natural rivers or lakes, Saudi Arabia relies heavily on groundwater and desalinated seawater.

Climate change is exacerbating this fragile balance, causing unpredictable rainfall, prolonged droughts and heat waves that deplete water resources faster than they can be replenished. At the same time, droughts are becoming more frequent and severe.

This is why Saudi Arabia recently joined the International Drought Resilience Alliance — a global coalition mobilizing resources to prepare for severe droughts — whose secretariat is hosted by the UN Convention to Combat Desertification.

The implications of this looming water crisis are profound. Agriculture, which consumes around 85 percent of Saudi Arabia’s water, could face catastrophic disruption.

As water becomes scarcer, food security is threatened, and the livelihoods of those who depend on agriculture hang in the balance.

Severe desertification, where fertile land is reduced to barren landscape, further exacerbates food insecurity and economic instability.

The economic costs are staggering, with billions of dollars lost each year. In the Middle East alone, land degradation affects more than 50 million hectares, resulting in annual losses estimated at $9 billion.

This December, the importance of tackling land degradation and water scarcity will be in the global spotlight when Saudi Arabia hosts the UNCCD COP16 in Riyadh. The summit is shaping up to be the largest and most ambitious global forum on land and drought to date. 

Water scarcity and land degradation are not just environmental issues. They are existential threats to the Kingdom and beyond.

Ibrahim Thiaw

This pivotal moment, which also coincides with the 30th anniversary of the convention, is an opportunity for all nations to come together to develop sustainable solutions and demonstrate their commitment to land restoration.

Every year we lose 100 million hectares, an area the size of Mauritania. If current trends continue, we will need to restore 1.5 billion hectares by 2030 to achieve land degradation neutrality.

Around the world, countries are taking bold steps to restore land. In Africa, for example, the Great Green Wall initiative aims to restore 100 million hectares of degraded land in 20 countries by 2030, creating jobs and improving food security.

China’s Kubuqi Desert, once a storm-ravaged wasteland, has been transformed through reforestation, ecosystem restoration, organic farming, eco-tourism, green industry and solar energy, benefiting 102,000 local people and lifting many out of poverty.

Furthermore, the Middle East Green Initiative, a regional effort led by Saudi Arabia, is set to plant 50 billion trees across the Middle East, revitalizing 200 million hectares of degraded land.

These initiatives, along with the Saudi Green Initiative, which aims to restore 40 million hectares of degraded land, illustrate the global commitment to tackling land degradation and water scarcity.

Through collaborative efforts and innovative solutions, there is hope that the challenges of water scarcity and desertification can be mitigated, ensuring a more sustainable future for the Kingdom, the broader Middle East, and beyond.

Ibrahim Thiaw is the under-secretary-general and executive secretary of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification.
 

Disclaimer: Views expressed by writers in this section are their own and do not necessarily reflect Arab News' point of view

260 foreigners rescued from virtual slavery in Myanmar’s online scam centers are being repatriated

260 foreigners rescued from virtual slavery in Myanmar’s online scam centers are being repatriated
Updated 2 min 9 sec ago
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260 foreigners rescued from virtual slavery in Myanmar’s online scam centers are being repatriated

260 foreigners rescued from virtual slavery in Myanmar’s online scam centers are being repatriated
  • Such scams have extracted tens of billions of dollars from victims around the world, according to UN experts
BANGKOK: Some 260 people believed to have been trafficked and trapped into working in online scam centers are to be repatriated after they were rescued from Myanmar, Thailand’s army announced Thursday.
In a fresh crackdown on scam centers operating from Southeast Asia, the Thai army said it was coordinating an effort to repatriate some 260 people believed to have been victims of human trafficking after they were rescued and sent from Myanmar to Thailand.
Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos, which share borders with Thailand, have become known as havens for criminal syndicates who are estimated to have forced hundreds of thousands of people in Southeast Asia and elsewhere into helping run online scams including false romantic ploys, bogus investment pitches and illegal gambling schemes.
Such scams have extracted tens of billions of dollars from victims around the world, according to UN experts, while the people recruited to carry them out have often been tricked into taking the jobs under false pretenses and trapped in virtual slavery.
An earlier crackdown on scam centers in Myanmar was initiated in late 2023 after China expressed embarrassment and concern over illegal casinos and scam operations in Myanmar’s northern Shan state along its border. Ethnic guerrilla groups with close ties to Beijing shut down many operations, and an estimated 45,000 Chinese nationals suspected of involvement were repatriated.
The army said that those rescued in the most recent operation came from 20 nationalities — with significant numbers from Ethiopia, Kenya, the Philippines, Malaysia, Pakistan and China. There were also nationals of Indonesia, Nepal, Taiwan, Uganda, Laos, Brazil, Burundi, Tanzania, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Nigeria, Ghana and India. They were sent across the border from Myanmar’s Myawaddy district to Thailand’s Tak province on Wednesday.
Reports in Thai media said a Myanmar ethnic militia that controls the area where they were held, the Democratic Karen Benevolent Army, was responsible for freeing the workers and taking them to the border. Myanmar’s military government exercises little control over frontier areas where ethnic minorities predominate.
Several ethnic militias are believed to be involved in criminal activities, including drug trafficking and protecting call-center scam operations.
The Thai army statement said the rescued people will undergo questioning, and if determined to be victims of human trafficking, will enter a process of protection while waiting to be sent back to their countries.
Deputy Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai, who is also defense minister, said Wednesday that there might be many more scam workers waiting to be repatriated from Myanmar through Thailand, but that Thailand would only receive those that are ready to be taken back right away by their country of origin.
“I’ve made it clear that Thailand is not going to set up another shelter,” he told reporters during a visit in Sa Kaeo province, which borders Cambodia. Thailand hosts nine refugee camps along the border holding more than 100,000 people, most from Myanmar’s ethnic Karen minority.
Phumtham added that Thailand would also need to question them before sending them back, first is to make sure that they are victims of human trafficking, and also to get information that would help the police investigate the trafficking and scam problems.
On a visit to China in early February, Thailand’s Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra vowed along with China’s leader Xi Jinping to crack down on the scam networks that plague Southeast Asia.
Many dramatic stories of Chinese people being lured to work in Bangkok only to be trafficked into a scam compound in Myanmar have surfaced. Chinese actor Wang Xing was a high-profile case but was quickly rescued after his tale spread on social media.
Underlining Beijing’s concern, Liu Zhongyi, China’s Vice Minister of Public Security and Commissioner of its Criminal Investigation Bureau, made an official visit to Thailand last month and inspected the border area opposite where many of the Myanmar’s scam centers are located.
Just ahead of Paetongtarn’s visit to China, the Thai government issued an order to cut off electricity, Internet and gas supplies to several areas in Myanmar along the border with northern Thailand, citing national security and severe damage that the country has suffered from scam operations.
Her government is considering expanding this measure to Thailand’s northeastern areas bordering Cambodia, said Thai Defense Ministry spokesperson Thanathip Sawangsang, who explained that officials had already removed Internet cables that were installed illegally in the areas.

Judge orders US to restore funds for foreign aid programs

Judge orders US to restore funds for foreign aid programs
Updated 4 min 50 sec ago
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Judge orders US to restore funds for foreign aid programs

Judge orders US to restore funds for foreign aid programs
  • Trump has attempted to dismantle government agencies and ordered them to prepare for wide-ranging job cuts

WASHINGTON: A federal judge ordered the administration of US President Donald Trump to restore funding for hundreds of foreign aid contractors who say they have been devastated by his 90-day blanket freeze, Politico reported late on Thursday.
The order blocks the Trump administration from canceling foreign aid contracts and awards that were in place before Trump took office on January 20.
The stated purpose in suspending of all foreign aid was to provide the opportunity to review programs for their efficiency and consistency with priorities, US District Judge Amir Ali wrote in a filing in the US District Court for the District of Columbia.
He added: “At least to date, defendants have not offered any explanation for why a blanket suspension of all congressionally appropriated foreign aid, which set off a shockwave and upended reliance interests for thousands of agreements with businesses, nonprofits, and organizations around the country, was a rational precursor to reviewing programs.”
Trump has attempted to dismantle government agencies and ordered them to prepare for wide-ranging job cuts, and several have already begun to lay off recent hires who lack full job security.
The Republican has also embarked on a massive government makeover, firing and sidelining hundreds of civil servants and top officials at agencies in his first steps toward downsizing the bureaucracy and installing more loyalists.


Plane carrying Secretary of State Rubio to Europe turned around because of a mechanical issue

Plane carrying Secretary of State Rubio to Europe turned around because of a mechanical issue
Updated 51 sec ago
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Plane carrying Secretary of State Rubio to Europe turned around because of a mechanical issue

Plane carrying Secretary of State Rubio to Europe turned around because of a mechanical issue
  • Rubio intended to continue his travel to Germany and the Middle East on a separate aircraft

WASHINGTON: An Air Force plane carrying Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman, Sen. Jim Risch, to Germany for the Munich Security Conference was forced to return to Washington late Thursday after developing a mechanical issue.
“This evening, en route from Washington to Munich, the plane on which Secretary Rubio is flying experienced a mechanical issue,” State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said.
“The plane has turned around and is returning to Joint Base Andrews,” she said. “The secretary intends to continue his travel to Germany and the Middle East on a separate aircraft.”
The issue with what one official said had to do with the cockpit windshield on the C-32, a converted Boeing 757, occurred about 90 minutes after the flight took off from Joint Base Andrews outside of Washington.
Although Rubio plans to resume his journey on a new plane, it was not immediately clear if the delay would cause him to miss a scheduled Friday morning meeting with Vice President JD Vance and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Munich.


Two customs officials, traders’ representative kidnapped in Pakistan’s volatile northwest — official

Two customs officials, traders’ representative kidnapped in Pakistan’s volatile northwest — official
Updated 18 min 27 sec ago
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Two customs officials, traders’ representative kidnapped in Pakistan’s volatile northwest — official

Two customs officials, traders’ representative kidnapped in Pakistan’s volatile northwest — official
  • Unidentified men kidnapped Customs Superintendent Nisar Abbasi, Inspector Khushal and Saif-ur-Rehman from South Waziristan district
  • Islamabad blames a surge in militant activities in Pakistan’s northwest on groups operating out of Afghanistan, Kabul denies the allegation

ISLAMABAD: Unidentified men on Thursday kidnapped two Pakistan Customs officials and president of a local chambers of commerce and industry in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, a senior administration official said.
Pakistan has struggled to contain surging militancy in KP since a fragile truce between the Pakistani Taliban, or the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), and the state broke down in November 2022.
The TTP and other militant groups have frequently targeted security forces convoys and check-posts, besides targeted killings and kidnappings of law enforcers and government officials in recent months.
Unidentified suspects kidnapped Pakistan Customs Superintendent Nisar Abbasi, Inspector Khushal and traders’ representative Saif-ur-Rehman from the South Waziristan district, according to Deputy Commissioner Nasir Khan.
“Customs officers and the [Waziristan] Chambers of Commerce president were kidnapped in Sholam area on their return from Angor Adda,” Khan said.
“The district administration and police have kicked off an investigation.”
While no group immediately claimed responsibility for the kidnapping, suspicion is likely to fall on the Pakistani Taliban.
Recently, Khan said, unidentified suspects also kidnapped Dr. Nauman, who worked with the Pakistan Red Crescent Society (PRCS), from Azam Warsak area of the restive district, which borders Afghanistan.
On Jan. 9, the Pakistani Taliban, who have stepped up their attacks in KP, kidnapped more than a dozen workers of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC), which is responsible for nuclear energy projects, from the volatile Lakki Marwat district, according to Lakki Marwat police spokesperson Shahid Marwat.
Eight of the abductees were released shortly after the kidnapping, while the militants released one more and body of another hostage on Jan. 25. The fate of the remaining captives remains unknown.
Islamabad has frequently blamed the surge in militant activities on Afghanistan, accusing it of sheltering and supporting militant groups that launch cross-border attacks.
Afghan officials deny involvement and insist that Pakistan’s security issues are an internal matter of Islamabad.


Filipino judges complete judicial training course at Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University in Riyadh

Filipino judges complete judicial training course at Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University in Riyadh
Updated 12 min 55 sec ago
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Filipino judges complete judicial training course at Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University in Riyadh

Filipino judges complete judicial training course at Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University in Riyadh
  • Two-week course aimed to enhance the judicial capabilities of Filipino judges
  • It also aimed to facilitate the exchange of expertise between Saudi Arabia and the Philippines

RIYADH: Participants in the second judicial course for Filipino judges, held at the Higher Judicial Institute at Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University, have commended the Kingdom's government for prioritizing Islamic knowledge and its commitment to serving Islam and Muslims.

The two-week course aimed to enhance the judicial capabilities of Filipino judges and facilitate the exchange of expertise between Saudi Arabia and the Philippines.

This year's session, which concluded on February 12, was the second for Filipino judges. The first session was held in 2022.

The program is part of a series of international judicial training programs organized by the Institute in collaboration with friendly countries worldwide. Judges from Malaysia, Indonesia, Comoros, and other African nations have also participated in the training courses.

 Filipino judges and scholars of the Higher Judicial Institute pose for a souvenir picture at the Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University ion Riyadh. (SPA)

These initiatives aim to foster international cooperation and exchange expertise in the field of justice, further solidifying the Kingdom's leadership in judicial matters, SPA said.

Islamic law is partially implemented in the Christian-majority Philippines and is applicable only to Filipino Muslims. Shari'ah courts are under the supervision of the country's Supreme Court.

Last year, Philippine President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. signed a law expanding the Sharia judicial system to cover not only the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) but other regions of the country. 

Under the new law, the Sharia courts have jurisdiction over civil affairs for Muslim communities, including family matters, marriage, and inheritance. Criminal cases remain under the authority of national courts.