Analysis of the water, energy, environmental and socioeconomic reality in selected Mediterranean countries (Cyprus, Turkey, Egypt, Jordan and Morocco) Original Research Article

The water scarcity is a common situation in many Mediterranean countries. Desalination by REs can be an interesting solution for isolated or high cost water areas. Within this framework, the ADIRA1 project aims the development of autonomous desalination systems in 11 selected sites of those areas in five target Mediterranean countries (Morocco, Cyprus, Turkey, Egypt and Jordan) in order to provide them with fresh water. The identification of the regions becomes a necessary first step to accomplish this objective as a result of the project. A proper selection of regions and sites will influence directly the results and subsequent impacts of the pilot installations. After a collection process consisting of acquiring information and filling in databases, target regions are selected following some criteria, mainly: scarcity of fresh water sources, weakness or inexistence of electrical grid connection and existence of renewable energy potential. A final report summarizes the situation of the region in every aspect relevant to the achievement of the purposes: water reality (sources and demands), energy reality (RE sources), socio-economic situation, etc. A selection of the most relevant information of that report is presented in this paper, making possible a fast and updated idea of the water situation in the target countries of the ADIRA project.