Water scarcity is affecting countries across the world and is becoming increasingly front of mind with governments.

Global water demand has more than doubled since 1960, driven by population growth and industrialization. Water stress, defined as the share of renewable water withdrawn, reveals how tight the balance has become: “high” stress means at least 40% of resources are used yearly, while “extreme” stress means 80% or more.

According to the latest figures from WRI’s Aqueduct Water Risk Atlas, 25 nations, home to roughly a quarter of the world’s population, are under extreme water pressure.

Around four billion people globally experience high water stress for at least one month annually, highlighting how widespread the shortage has become.

Muslim countries feature prominently in the list of the most water-stressed countries. Across the 57 member states of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), many countries now rely on costly stopgaps like desalination and fossil groundwater. 

This article explores the ten most water-stressed OIC countries, ranked by the UN’s SDG 6.4.2 indicator, which measures freshwater withdrawals as a percentage of available renewable resources. Anything above 25% signals severe stress; above 100% means withdrawals exceed natural supply. 

Kuwait
With just 4.83 cubic meters of renewable water per person annually, Kuwait’s natural supply is effectively zero. By contrast, the Falkenmark index defines 500 m³ as the threshold for “absolute scarcity.” Kuwait’s staggering 3,851% water stress score means its withdrawals are almost forty times higher than its renewable supply. All this demand is met through desalination, powered by oil and gas. While desalination guarantees taps do not run dry, it comes with high costs that threaten fragile Gulf ecosystems. 

United Arab Emirates
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is close behind, with a stress score of 1,667%. Like Kuwait, it sits on almost no renewable water - just 15.57 m³ per capita. Desalination has enabled this desert country to grow rapidly, but the risks are mounting. The UAE has invested in recycling wastewater and promoting water efficiency in agriculture, but the reality is that its natural endowment cannot support its population without permanent technological intervention.

Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia withdraws water at 993% of its renewable supply. With per-capita availability of just 71 m³, it falls deep into absolute scarcity.

For decades, the kingdom pursued self-sufficiency in wheat and other crops by pumping ancient non-renewable aquifers. That policy drained reserves at unsustainable rates and was eventually abandoned, but its legacy endures: vast tracts of desert now bear the scars of empty wells.

Today, Saudi Arabia is the world’s largest producer of desalinated water, and food security has shifted from local production to imports. But even desalination has limits, both environmental and financial. Rising demand, climate change, and energy transition pressures make the kingdom’s water future precarious.

Libya
In Libya, water stress stands at 817%, with just 105 m³ per capita of renewable supply. The country relies almost entirely on the Great Man-Made River Project, a colossal pipeline system that taps into fossil aquifers beneath the Sahara. Built in the 1980s, it once symbolized national pride and self-reliance. Today, the system is crumbling under the strain of war, neglect, and over-extraction.

Qatar
Qatar, despite its wealth, faces water stress of 431%. Per-capita renewable water stands at just 20.85 m³, among the lowest in the world. Like its Gulf neighbors, it has built an economy reliant on desalination, but with additional vulnerability: agriculture consumes a disproportionate share of water, even as local production remains limited.

Yemen
With a stress score of 170% and just 74 m³ per person, Yemenis face chronic shortages even in the best of times. Conflict has destroyed water infrastructure, leaving millions without safe access.

Algeria
Algeria records water stress of 138%. With 276 m³ per person, it is in absolute scarcity, worsened by erratic rainfall and climate variability. Agriculture consumes more than 70% of withdrawals, making the country especially vulnerable to drought. Algeria has invested in desalination and dams, but these measures are playing catch-up against demand that already outstrips renewable supply.

Bahrain
Bahrain faces water stress of 134% with per-capita renewable availability of just 74 m³. Historically reliant on underground aquifers, Bahrain has seen those reserves salinized by seawater intrusion. Today, desalination provides most drinking water, but the ecological costs of brine discharge weigh heavily on the surrounding marine environment.

Egypt
Even with the Nile, Egypt, with a population of over 110 million, is experiencing water stress. Its renewable supply amounts to just 584 m³ per person. Egypt’s stress score is 117%, meaning it withdraws more than the river can sustainably provide. Rapid population growth, upstream pressures from Ethiopia’s Grand Renaissance Dam, and climate change-induced variability in Nile flows are intensifying the strain. 

Oman
Rounding out the list is Oman, with stress at 117% and just 290 m³ per person. The country’s traditional aflaj irrigation systems, recognized as UNESCO heritage, have long allowed Omanis to live with scarce water.

But modern pressures - urban growth, rising consumption, and industrial demand - are pushing the system to breaking point. Oman has turned to desalination, yet its water balance remains fragile.

Looking ahead
Even under an optimistic climate scenario where global temperatures rise only 1.3°C to 2.4°C (2.3 °F to 4.3 °F) by 2100, another billion people could be living under extremely high water stress by 2050. Over the same period, global water demand is forecast to climb 20–25%, and the number of watersheds with highly unpredictable year-to-year supplies is expected to grow by about 19%.

The numbers make clear the need for multi-layered solutions, including better governance, reduced agricultural demand, investment in recycling and efficiency, and regional cooperation on shared rivers and aquifers.

The OIC, as a bloc, has an opportunity to lead in fostering the political cooperation that is often lacking in transboundary water management. Without that, the region risks turning water from a source of life into a trigger for conflict.

Saudi Arabia’s fintech company, Tamara, has raised an asset-backed financing facility of up to $2.4 billion from a consortium of global financial companies, including Goldman Sachs, Citi, and Apollo funds, marking the largest deal of its kind in the Middle East.

Announced during the Money 20/20 Middle East conference in Riyadh, the transaction refinances and upsizes a previous $500 million facility arranged by Goldman Sachs. The package includes an initial $1.4 billion and an additional $1 billion available over three years, pending regulatory approvals.

“This asset-backed facility will increase Tamara’s lending power and help the platform grow well beyond its current 20 million customers,” the company said in a statement, highlighting its plans to expand credit and payment products across the region.

The financing is fully Shariah-compliant and will support Tamara’s strategy to diversify its offerings, including new credit and payment services. It also underscores a growing commitment by international investors to Saudi Arabia’s fintech sector, aligning with Vision 2030 and the kingdom’s financial sector development program, which aims to deepen capital markets and spur private-sector growth.

Founded in 2020, Tamara has been one of the leading players in the Gulf’s buy-now-pay-later market, enabling transactions at more than 87,000 merchants. The company achieved unicorn status in late 2023 after a $340 million series C round led by SNB Capital and Sanabil Investments, a unit of Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund.

With this latest financing, Tamara plans to scale its platform far beyond its current customer base and accelerate regional expansion, further cementing Saudi Arabia’s role as a hub for innovation and inward investment in financial technology.

We speak with Umar Munshi, managing partner at Hasan.VC, a venture capital fund, on the purpose of impactful investing, the value frontier technologies can help unlock and the future of the alternative finance ecosystem.

How do you measure the social impact of HASAN.VC’s investments beyond profitability, to align with the ethical values embedded in the halal ecosystem? 

We have several data points and barometers, which at present, are relatively qualitative, and are spread across the different types and stages of startups we support.  We are very focused on grooming the startup founder community, as well as pay close attention to emerging markets. 

We measure impact across two diverse yet cardinal principles – first, the religiosity of our investments, and their impact on the lives of Muslims, elevating the community in practice and progress. 

With Shariah compliance as a starting point and initial baseline, we focus on tech startups that hold the potential of impacting Muslim consumers. We prioritise enterprises that are halal-centric and impact-driven as well as look into apps such halal travel and tourism services that beckon people of all faiths. 

From a broader lens, we measure impact of technologies and startups that have a purposeful impact on the wider community, help improve employment, create value and efficiency, and enhance literacy and education.  

What opportunities do you see in the $2 trillion halal market, and how is HASAN.VC positioned to capitalize on untapped segments? 

There are several gaps and pain points to fill among practicing Muslim communities, where early-stage startups can strive and offer pragmatic solutions to real-world challenges. In an AI-assisted and -dominated world, I expect an explosion of new startups that will spring up, looking to fill the lacunae and ease the interface between technologies and communities. 

Businesses that are established with a higher purpose of dispensing value and helping curate products and cultures around the core principle of altruism and community, yield tangible benefits. New-age and new-form businesses rooted in halal values that can help alleviate real-world problems remain on Hasan VC’s radar. 

What role do you envision for blockchain and decentralized finance (DeFi) in expanding the halal economy’s digital infrastructure?

Blockchain and decentralized finance (DeFI) can and ideally should, form the backbone of the halal economy infrastructure, which includes, among other elements, payment remittance and market organization components. 

Beyond infrastructure, these frontier technologies can play a critical role in product innovation and delivery. 

The payment process consists of several intermediaries, which render the entire value chain costly. High execution costs coupled with friction among stakeholders, and a dearth of transparency and interoperability has prompted  fintech companies and global think tanks to encourage disruption to the conventional model. 

In the halal economy space, this is especially important because the large majority of natural markets - that constitute outsized Muslim populations - face payment challenges and thus offer huge opportunity for technologies such as blockchain and DeFi to enable seamless domestic and cross-border P2P payment transactions. 

Blockchain and DeFi can also simplify and foster fundraising, undergirding companies and projects to raise capital effectively. Decentralized autonomous organizations can help set the rules of engagement and transparency, streamlining and automating the supply chain.

DeFi can also help tokenize real-world assets as well as physical and virtual assets, offering a new conduit for revenue.

What is the future of the alternative finance market?

The way people will invest and alternative finance markets will function in the future will be very different from how they are today. 

There is a plethora of opportunities in the alternative ecosystem, including the tokenisation of real-world assets, democratising access, enabling wealth creation and allowing people to own a fraction of assets which were otherwise unavailable.

This configuration can be done in a Shariah-compliant manner, within the bounds of an ethical framework, operating on moral structures and intent. Governance systems such as DAOs and smart contracts are helping build trust, forging ways in which consumers can transact in a frictionless, low-cost manner, with a user-friendly interface. 

AI can work as a huge catalyst, processing colossal amounts of data to derive sound investment and pricing decisions as well as curate bespoke investment portfolios based on an individual’s risk profile and income levels. 

I expect a raft of investment options ready to be democratized, enabling alternative finance markets to become the linchpin of tomorrow’s financial landscape. 

Indonesia is set to launch six new special economic zones (SEZs), including its first-ever halal SEZ in Sidoarjo, East Java, as part of efforts to diversify the economy and strengthen its position in global value chains.

The plan, announced by the Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs on September 9, 2025, now awaits final approval from President Prabowo Subianto.

The Sidoarjo halal SEZ is expected to reduce Indonesia’s reliance on imported processing, particularly in key materials such as gelatin, much of which is currently sourced from China before being exported to the Middle East. 

Indonesia, home to the world’s largest Muslim population, sees the zone as an opportunity to capture a greater share of the multi-trillion-dollar halal economy by localizing production in food, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, and logistics. Early interest from investors signals strong potential for growth once the SEZ becomes operational.

Currently, Indonesia operates 25 SEZs, split between 13 industrial and 12 service-based zones, which have attracted nearly $19.4 billion in investments and created more than 187,000 jobs. In the first half of 2025 alone, SEZs absorbed $2.56 billion in investments—nearly half of the annual target—and generated exports worth approximately $5.19 billion.

The addition of the halal SEZ is expected to combine infrastructure, policy incentives, and industry specialization to create a globally competitive halal hub serving the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and Africa.

Qatar Financial Centre has rolled out a proof of concept to facilitate the uptake of blockchain technology across Islamic finance. 

The Qatar-based business hub will demonstrate a blockchain-based digital receipt system to bolster transparency and regulatory compliance in Shariah-compliant asset-backed finance. 

The system will operate on HashSphere, a private distributed ledger technology (DLT) built by software company Hashgraph, utilising Google Cloud infrastructure, in collaboration with QFC’s Digital Assets Lab, a statement said. 

A distributed ledger is a database shared by multiple participants in which each member maintains and updates a synchronized copy of the data. The ledger enables members to verify, execute and record transactions, obviating reliance on intermediary entities such as banks, brokers or auditors. 

QFC will offer infrastructure support and expertise to guide the use case development, Blade Labs will lead the develop of the receipt system, while AlRayan Bank will validate the system’s functionality and explore commercialisation pathways. 

“Through our Digital Assets Lab, we’re proud to facilitate this pilot as a step forward in exploring how blockchain can bring greater efficiency and scalability to Shariah-compliant financial products,” said Yousuf Mohamed Al-Jaida, chief executive officer at QFC. 

“The Digital Receipt System POC will showcase that blockchain, smart contracts, and global identity standards can address the operational bottlenecks that currently prevent Islamic finance institutions from scaling certain Shariah-compliant asset-backed products,” said Sami Mian, CEO, Blade Labs. 

In 2023, QFC signed an agreement with blockchain technology platform to collaborate on blockchain and digital asset initiatives in the financial industry.
 

Oil prices rose on Tuesday after the Israeli military said it carried out a strike targeting Hamas leadership in Qatar’s capital Doha, widening its years-long military operations across the Middle East. 

Brent crude futures hit a session high of $67.30 at 3.01pm GMT time, before settling at $66.42. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures shot to a session high of $63.58 before settling at $62.67.

Qatar said that the attack on the residential headquarters of several members of Hamas’ political bureau, was a “flagrant violation of all international laws and norms” and presented a serious threat to national security. 

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt read a statement Tuesday during the press briefing in which she said that unilaterally bombing inside Qatar does not advance Israel or America's goals.

Qatari Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani spoke with US President Donald Trump, who expressed his solidarity and assured that such a thing will not happen again on Qatari soil.

The UAE, Saudi Arabia and other Arab states, too, condemned the Israeli attack.

The oil benchmarks were already trading higher before the attacks, bolstered by a decision by producer group OPEC+ to opt for a modest output hike.