The Water That Sustains Us

Dear SAWA community,

Today is a particularly important day for all of us. March 22 turns our attention to one of the most defining resources in the region: water.

Across MENA, water brings heritage and environmental resilience together into one: it sustains our ecosystems and biomes, it supports our livelihoods, and it allows the relationship between us and our land to thrive. From rivers to aquifers to wadis to coastlines, it has sustained civilisations and biodiversity for all of history. Yet today, the systems that once supported life are under growing pressure from climate change and unsustainable management. We are the most water-scarce region in the world.

This month’s newsletter edition arrives alongside World Water Day today, and in it, we reflect on the many ways water connects environmental stewardship and regional cooperation. It reminds us that sustainability in our region has always been inseparable from how we manage scarcity, and how water scarcity is the defining sustainability challenge of our future.

As always, we hope this newsletter offers ideas and conversations.

Until next time,

The SAWA team

P.S.,

We always want to hear from our community. Do you have a project, announcement or topic you’d like to share in our newsletter? Reach out at info@sawanetwork.me.

If you haven’t already, don’t forget to join our SAWA WhatsApp community to stay connected with real-time discussions and updates.

 Calling for Volunteers

We’re looking to grow our offering even further. Are you interested in volunteering with SAWA?

Whether you’d like to contribute to content, support our socials, help with outreach or event planning in your city, or something else you’d like to lead on, we’d love to hear from you. Fill out our interest form here, and we’ll be in touch.

Happening Tomorrow: SAWA London Gathering

A quick reminder for our London-based community: our first ever SAWA gathering is happening tomorrow evening, March 23, from 7-9pm at Four Hundred Rabbits Pizza Restaurant Elephant And Castle, London.

We’ll be providing pizza for attendees to enjoy while we connect and get to know each other. This will be an informal evening to meet fellow sustainability professionals, exchange ideas, and start building stronger connections within the SAWA community.

If you plan to join us, please be sure to RSVP through this link. We hope to see you there!

 Careers Corner

In this corner, you’ll find a monthly roundup of impact-driven roles, opportunities and practical advice from the region and its diaspora. We also regularly share roundups on LinkedIn, so be sure to check out our page!

Jobs on the SAWA Radar:

EMEA

• ESG Solutions & Analytics Intern (London, UK)

• Head of Inclusion, CSR and EVP (London, UK)

• STAGE - Assistant Chef de Projet Développement Durable (Paris, France)

• HSE Manager (Riyadh, KSA)

• Advisor - Safety, Health & Environment (Dubai, UAE)

• Sustainability and Environment Specialist (Dubai, UAE)

AMER

• Climate Portfolio Manager (Boston, MA, US)

• Vice President, Sustainability Strategy, Integration & Enablement (New York, NY, US)

• Manager - ESG Reporting (Burbank, CA, US)

• Senior Water Resources Engineering (Chicago, IL, US and others)

• Sustainability Analyst, Healthy Homes (Chicago, IL, US)

• Environmental Planner (Washington D.C., US)

Committee tip of the month:

“In the age of AI recruitment, oversaturated markets, and a lack of personability for both candidates and recruiters, one of the most powerful tools at your disposal is your autonomy over your personal brand! When people hear this, they often think it means they need to have a large online presence, like public social media accounts or a portfolio website, and while both of these tools are fantastic, you can always start small with tools you’re probably already utilising, like LinkedIn.” - Jude, SAWA Co-Founder, based in London, UK.

Some tips to help you build your personal brand:

• Update your profile with examples of work. Presented on a webinar or contributed to a report? Link it directly under your experience section to ensure it’s always accessible.

• Highlight posts that showcase your skills and accomplishments at the top of your profile using the ‘feature at top of profile’ button, keeping them front and centre.

• Comment and engage! Your personal brand isn’t just built by big announcements or showcasing your work; it's also in the comments you leave, the topics you showcase intrigue or expertise in, or the content you amplify.

• Don’t underestimate your ‘about’ section - looking to expand your network or connect over specific topics? Include a call-to-action in this part of your profile and watch the connection requests roll in!

We want to hear your tips! If you have one to share, please fill out this form for a feature.

 What We’re Reading: Financing Water Justice in MENA

Access to water is not just a technical challenge, it’s also one of fairness (see: our Environmental Justice section below!). This month, we’re reading a report published by think tank Arab Reform Initiative, “Financing Water Justice: International Aid and Development in the MENA Region”, by researcher Dana Abi Ghanem.

The report examines how international aid shapes watergovernance and whether these investments advance sustainable access across MENA. Abi Ghanem highlights that water scarcity is not only geographic: inefficient governance, unequal allocation and overuse of groundwater, and agriculture-intensive crops leave many communities, particularly rural populations and displaced groups, vulnerable.

For decades, organisations such as the World Bank, United Nation agencies and bilateral donors have funded waterdevelopment projects across the region. While these projects are often framed around sustainability and efficiency, are they sufficiently addressing deeper questions of democratic participation in water governance? The answer may lie in how international financial institutions are engaging their practices, investments and partnerships, and whether principles of fairness and equity are integrated.

The report examines what it might mean to approach these challenges using a water justice framework, one that centres equity, transparency and community participation in decision-making. You can read it in full here.

 Dates to Watch

Each month, we spotlight a global or regional environmental date that resonates with SAWA’s mission.

March 21: International Day of Forests | The Connection Between Forests and Water

This Day of Forests, we want to highlight the intrinsic link between forests and water systems, a relationship that is often overlooked in conversations around water scarcity. Forest ecosystems play a vital role in regulating the global water cycle, influencing rainfall patterns, improving groundwater recharge, and maintaining the health of rivers and watersheds. They act as natural filtration systems, improving water quality while also reducing the risks of floods, soil erosion and desertification.

In MENA, where water scarcity is already a defining environmental, socio-economic, and sometimes even political challenge, the degradation of land and loss of natural vegetation further intensify pressure on water resources. While the region as a whole is not traditionally associated with dense forests, landscapes such as mountain ecosystems, dry forests, and rangelands still play a crucial role in stabilising soils and supporting water retention. Protecting and restoring these ecosystems is directly linked to strengthening water security and climate resilience.

Take Lebanon for example. Cedar forests such as those in the Chouf Biosphere Reserve are not only culturally and historically significant, drawing in avid hikers, but also play an important role in maintaining watershed health and regulating local watersystems. Similar dynamics exist across the region, where protecting natural landscapes directly contributes to long-term water security.

This day encourages us to move beyond viewing water as a standalone resource, and instead understand it as part of a wider ecological system. Sustainable water management in the region will depend not only on technological solutions, but also on how effectively we conserve and restore the natural systems that regulate it.

How you can engage this month: 

• Learn more about the connection between land degradation, deforestation and water scarcity in your local or regional context.

• Support or explore reforestation, afforestation or land restoration initiatives across MENA.

• Consider how nature-based solutions can complement infrastructure-led approaches to water management in your field.

• Reflect on how your work or studies engage with ecosystem preservation as part of broader sustainability efforts.

 Regional Transaction Spotlight of the Month

Earlier this year, Emirates NBD - a large banking group in the region - announced a USD 1 billion sustainable bond issuance split into a USD 300 million Blue tranche, and a USD 700 million Green tranche, making the transaction the largest GCC-issued Blue Bond and the largest Dual-Tranche Blue-Green Bond issued by a financial institution globally. Proceeds from the bond issuance will be used to fund projects promoting marine conservation, sustainable water systems and efficient waterconsumption, and acceleration of the energy transition, in alignment with Emirates NBD’s Sustainable Finance Framework. 

Back in 2024, DP World became the first company in the region to issue a blue bond, after raising USD 100 million, with the aim to “fund sustainable projects cutting across marine transportation, port infrastructure, marine pollution, as well as nature and waterpositive initiatives.”

These transactions do more than simply finance projects for their respective institutions: they signal to the global economy that the GCC and wider region are invested in long-term sustainable transformation and development, and that they’re ready to put their money where their mouth is.

Language of Environmental Justice

Each month, we spotlight a key term to help build shared understanding around intersectional sustainability.

March’s Term: Water Justice

As the threat of water scarcity grows and escalates with the climate crisis and mismanagement of resources, so does the importance of turning water justice from a concept to a standard. It refers to the fair and equitable redistribution, access and governance of water resources, recognising that water challenges of scarcity are not only environmental or technical, but they are also interwoven with social, economic and political dynamics.

Across MENA, we often discuss water scarcity through the lens of infrastructure, technology or resource management, frequently in the context of scarcity given our status as one of the driest regions in the world. While these are all critical lenses, waterjustice begs broader questions: who has access to water? Who gets to make decisions about it? Who bears the consequences when systems or policies fail?

Decisions about water shape livelihoods, public health, food systems, biodiversity, and more. Inequities can emerge when marginalised communities have limited influence over how wateris allocated or managed, particularly when socioeconomic and political dynamics that impact access to water are not considered in policy and management design. Water justice therefore emphasises inclusive governance and long-term sustainable, equitable access. It encourages policymakers, researchers, businesses and communities to view water not just as a comedy, but as a shared resource that we rely on for both environmental stability, social wellbeing, and in MENA, regional cooperation.

As we face some of the world’s highest levels of water stress, these questions are increasingly urgent. Ensuring resilient watersystems means we have to question how decisions about waterare made. As we mark World Water Day this month, we invite you to reflect:

• How does your field engage with water stewardship?

• How can water governance become more inclusive and resilient across MENA?

You can read more about water justice here.

 What We’re Learning 

This month, we’re learning about the growing challenge of desalination brine management, highlighted in a recent article by Nadjib Drouiche. As desalination becomes increasingly critical for water security, especially across MENA, so does dealing with the brine left behind.

The article explores emerging solutions beyond releasing brine back into oceans and seas. New discharge systems are designed to spread and dilute it more safely, while improved desalination technologies are helping reduce the total amount produced. At the same time, researchers are beginning to treat brine as a potential resource, rather than waste. Drouiche discusses pilot projects exploring ways to recover and extract valuable minerals such as magnesium or lithium, or reuse diluted brine in aquaculture and other marine-based systems.

Managing the byproducts of desalination is increasingly important. For regions like ours, where desalination already plays a central role in water security, innovations in brine management highlight the need to re-think the entire water system, from desalination to waste management.

 Stay Connected with SAWA 

Stay connected with updates, opportunities, networking, events and more on our LinkedIn, Instagram and website.

 Thank You

We hope that this month’s edition invites reflection on water and how it is connected to every aspect of sustainability: ecosystems, food systems, cities and infrastructure, and climate resilience. 

In MENA and its diaspora, discussions on water are often framed through the lens of its limits. However, we often forget that we have an opportunity to change this: innovation in watermanagement, nature-based solutions and regional cooperation can and will play a defining role in shaping a more sustainable future for us. 

At SAWA, we believe these conversations are strongest when they happen collectively. Thank you for being a part of them. 

With gratitude,

The SAWA Team