2. THE MEDITERRANEAN REGION
2.1. Defining the
geographical setting and its characterization
2.2. Mediterranean
population
2.3. The insularity of the
Mediterranean
2.4. Biological diversity
2.5. The problem of water
2.6. Mediterranean's soils
and agricultural expansion
2.7. Marine resources
2.8. Pollution and
environmental degradation
2.9. Industrialization and
its environmental impacts
2.10. Tourism
2. THE MEDITERRANEAN REGION
2.1. Definition of the
geographical setting and its characterization
When people talk of the Mediterranean, which means the
"sea between lands", they generally have a rather
imprecise of the area it actually covers. If we pay attention to
its geological origins, it should of necessity include the Black
Sea, as it is part of the remains of the ancient Sea of Thetys,
which separated Africa from the Eurasian continent, and consisted
of two basins, an eastern basin now known as the Black Sea, and a
western basin, now known as the Mediterranean, which were
separated by the Dardanelles Strait.
Does the expression apply only the Mediterranean Sea itself, with
its island groups, and the coastlines of the countries bordering
the Mediterranean, or should it include the watersheds that drain
into the Mediterranean? If so, inclusion of the Rhône's drainage
basin would extend the Mediterranean to Geneva and Lausanne in
Switzerland, as well as Lake Leman, while on the southern shores
of the Mediterranean this would justify the inclusion of The
Sudan, Ethiopia, Uganda and Lake Victoria. Does the Mediterranean
end at the Dardanelles, or does it include the Sea of Marmara?
The Blue Plan seems to opt for a more ecological definition,
according to which the geographical limits of the Mediterranean
area are the area in which the olive is cultivated.
The Mediterranean's relevant characteristics are determined by
the presence of a landlocked sea, which maintains its level due
to the entry of water through the Straits of Gibraltar. This sea
and the area around it were the birthplace of some of the
earliest human civilizations. Many civilizations have arisen on
the shores of the Mediterranean; the Egyptians, Greeks,
Phoenicians and Carthaginians preceded the Roman Empire, which
was followed by colonization by the Arabs, the Ottoman Empire and
colonization by Europeans (Catalans, French, etc.). The rise and
fall of these civilizations implied a strong and growing human
impact, with major and largely irreversible changes. The
Mediterranean Basin may well be the natural system that has been
most affected human beings in the whole world, and it is now
impossible to distinguish between what is natural and what is the
result of human action. There is in fact a
natural-social-cultural-economic continuum in which the sea has
been the natural linkage between the riverside States, their
cultures and their social and economic systems.
This should not be taken to mean that it is impossible to define
the natural characteristics of the Mediterranean Basin. People
normally talk of the Mediterranean as if it was a homogeneous
sea, but it is in fact two relatively deep basins separated by an
underwater mountain chain, that is known as the Strait of Sicily,
between the island of Sicily and Tunisia, which is relatively
shallow. Both of these basins are in turn divided into a series
of smaller basins or seas. The western basin contains the
Alborán Basin, the Algerian Basin, the Ligurian Sea and the
Tyrrhenian Basin. The eastern basin contains the Adriatic Sea,
the Ionian Basin, the Aegean Sea, the Gulf of Sidra and the
Levantine Basin. Each one of these basins has its own
characteristics.
The Strait of Gibraltar is the Mediterranean's only link to the
Atlantic Ocean, and this strait is relatively narrow, 15 km, and
only 290 m deep. This is where water enters the Mediterranean
Basin from the Atlantic, and the basin's turnover time is about
90 years. Within the Mediterranean Basin, evaporation is
relatively high, meaning that salinity is higher than in the
Atlantic, and this is not compensated by freshwater inputs from
the rivers that drain into the basin. The fact that the basin is
almost entirely landlocked and the low input of waters mean that
the tides are relatively weak and the water is relatively warm.
These features of the Mediterranean have both negative and
positive effects. They configure a mild climate, favour transport
and human settlement of coastlines, but they imply that the
Mediterranean Basin has a low ability to "wash out"
pollution, so that pollution problems tend to get worse.
One important feature of the Mediterranean Basin is that it is
almost entirely surrounded by mountains, often rising abruptly
close to the coastline, except for about 3,000 km in Egypt and
Libya, from the Nile to the Atlas Mountains, where the Saharan
Platform and desert reach the sea. Between the encircling
mountains and the sea there is a low-lying area, rarely more than
20 km wide and generally much less, that has been settled by
human beings for thousands of years. Furthermore, the
Mediterranean Basin's 46,000 km coastline is often separated by
mountains that descend sharply to sea level, meaning that the
coastline is highly divided into separate compartments. There are
many small coves, known as calas in Catalonia, the
Balearic Islands and Valencia and Andalusia in Spain, as calanques
in Provence in France and as rivieras in France and Italy.
One of the special features of the Mediterranean is its climate,
with clearly defined seasons, hot, dry summers, with mild and
very wet winters, a regular rainfall regime that is irregular
within a year and between years. This is called a Mediterranean
climate, and occurs in some other regions, such as parts of
California, and some areas of South America, Australia and South
Africa.
2.2. Mediterranean population
The coastal States of the Mediterranean basin have more than
410 million inhabitants, with more than 37% living in the
coastline, which only represents 17.5% of the total surface area
of these countries. The Mediterranean's population shows a clear
asymmetry; on the northern shores the population is almost
stabilized, and is in fact tending to age, while on the southern
and eastern shorelines fertility rates are still comparatively
high in relation to those on the northern shoreline, though they
are tending to decrease. This problem is becoming worse because
of the large rural migration from the interior to the cities of
the coastline in North Africa and the Middle East. In the mid
1980s the countries of the northern shoreline, from Greece to
Spain accounted for rather more than half the Mediterranean's
population (about 360 million), but these trends suggest that by
2025 it will only be home to one third of the population, which
it is estimated will be between 550 and 570 million.
The preceding point leads to one of the most important phenomena
affecting the Mediterranean, movement to the cities. In addition
to the fact that the Mediterranean's population is concentrated
in a relatively narrow coastal strip, most of the industries in
the northern countries tend to concentrate the industrialization
processes occurring in the south and eastern Mediterranean,
together with all the accompanying infrastructure in this coastal
zone. This leads to a major environmental impact associated with
concentrations of human beings, but with an important qualitative
difference; populations in the north are tending to stabilize,
and to have a large impact due to their high level of consumption
and the fact that it is associated with a major industrial
concentration, but in the south, consumption levels are only a
small part of those in the north, although the population is
greater, and industrialization, which is only just beginning, has
a relatively high rate of growth.
2.3. The insularity of Mediterranean
Insularity is a relevant feature of the Mediterranean. The
islands are distributed irregularly within the Mediterranean
Basin. The eastern basin contains the large archipelagoes of the
Adriatic, the Ionian and the Aegean, while the western basin
contains three groups of islands centred around one or two large
islands: Sicily, with the Eolie Islands and Egadi Islands,
Corsica, Sardinia and the Balearic Islands, as well as the
islands in the Strait of Sicily, (Lampedusa, Pantelleria, etc.),
those of the Tuscan Archipelago (Elba, Capraia, etc.), the Ponza
Islands (Pontine Islands) in the Tyrrhenian Sea (Capri, Ischia,
Procida, etc.) and, to finish, the islands of Malta, Alborán,
etc.
About 200 Mediterranean islands are permanently inhabited. At the
end of the 1980s their total population was estimated to be more
than 10 million. The western islands have the largest population;
the French, Spanish and Italian islands then had a population of
7.5 million, 6.5 million of them in Sicily and Sardinia. Sicily
and Sardinia, together with Corsica, Mallorca, Cyprus, Crete,
Malta and Euboea have more than 9 million inhabitants, about 90%
of the population of the Mediterranean islands. Islands are of
particular importance in Greece, where 19% of the country's area
is islands, and is home to 14% of the population, and in Italy,
where they represent 16% of the country's area and house 12% of
the population.
2.4. Biological diversity
The composition of the Mediterranean plant and animal
communities is identified with typical continental or coastal
ecosystems. The continental ecosystems are usually classified
into forest ecosystems, steppes and oases. The coastal ecosystems
are divided into continental coastal ecosystems, lagoon
ecosystems and coastal marine systems.
Mediterranean forests cover about 85 million hectares, 9.4% of
the total area, a much smaller percentage than in the past,
showing a strong history of deforestation to bring land into
cultivation, or indiscriminate felling for other economic
reasons, such as construction or shipbuilding, or for firewood.
These ecosystems consist of a wide range of conifers, such as the
Mediterranean pine, the stone pine, the Kabylia pine, the black
pine, the Atlas cedar and the cedar of Lebanon, as well as
deciduous and evergreen oaks. The degraded forest ecosystems
typical of the Mediterranean include juniper scrub, garrigue and
maquis, rosemary scrub, etc. The main problem of the forest
ecosystems is the fires that regularly rage through the
Mediterranean forests.
Steppe landscape are typical of North Africa and the Anatolia
region. They are home to relatively diverse animal communities
that depend on vegetation whose productivity is low and which is
extremely fragile.
Finally, oases are extremely fragile ecosystems, that used to
show relatively high biological diversity as they were areas of
shelter, but their biodiversity has declined greatly due to their
increasing exploitation by human beings.
The coastal ecosystems are systems intermediate between the land
environment and the sea, and thus very abundant in the
Mediterranean region, though they do not occupy a very large
area. On land, the coastal ecosystems consist of dune systems,
rocky cliffs and coastal lagoon, especially in the deltas of
rivers. The lagoon areas of the Mediterranean are very important,
covering approximately a million hectares and are responsible for
10-30% of fishery production, without considering invertebrates,
or their importance in the juvenile period of many demersal
species or as reception areas for numerous species of migratory
birds. The threats to the deltas of the Ebro, Rhône, Po and Nile
are particularly worrying, as are those facing the coastline of
Tunisia and Algeria. In the marine coastal ecosystems, the
meadows of posidonia (Posidonia oceanica) are suffering
serious problems.
The region is estimated to be home to more than 10,000 marine
species and about 25,000 plant species, of which about 50% are
endemic. About 1,000 plant species are in danger of extinction
and 26 species are known to have become extinct.
In terms of ecosystems, an estimated 75% of the dune ecosystems
on the northern shores have disappeared, and in the next 50 years
a million hectares of wetlands will be destroyed.
The loss of biodiversity also affects domesticated species, and
in 1970 the FAO pointed out that 115 of the 145 breeds of cattle
in the Mediterranean were in danger of extinction, and that 33 of
the 49 breeds of goat were at risk.
2.5. The problem of water
One of the most serious problems facing the Mediterranean is
the availability of water. The hydrographic regime is
characterized by irregularity (very dry or very wet seasons) and
its unequal geographical distribution (abundance in some regions,
especially the French coastline, and shortage on the southern and
eastern coastline). Since Antiquity, this has given rise to
construction of major works like dams, irrigation systems,
transfers from one watershed to another, etc.
The internal resources of water in the Mediterranean countries
are about 985 km3 per year but they are
very unevenly distributed. The north of the basin has about 74%
of the water resources, and the south only has about 5%.
Considering the total availability of water, from both internal
and external sources, the four countries with the most water
(France, Italy, Turkey and the former Yugoslavia) have more than
2/3 of the total, about 825 of the 1,179 km3
available every year. In countries like Spain, Italy, Turkey,
Lebanon, Libya and Morocco, most of the water available is of
internal origin, but in other countries it is of external origin.
Thus, Egypt receives 98% of its water from outside the country,
Syria receives 80%, Israel receives 55%, etc.
The construction of dams has increased water availability by at
least 55% (20% by the construction of the Aswan High Dam and Lake
Nasser in Egypt). Water shortage in certain regions, especially
on islands, means it must be shipped in to supply the population.
In terms of consumption, agriculture has the largest demand for
water, consuming 72% of all the water in the Mediterranean Basin,
while industry uses about 17% and human consumption accounts for
10%. These percentages vary from country to country, and are
higher in arid and desert countries. So agricultural consumption
of water is as high as 80% in the southern countries, reaching a
maximum of 90% in Libya. The high use of agricultural chemicals
in agriculture and the discharge of sewage and industrial wastes
into watercourses are causing major water pollution. Increasingly
intensive agriculture, together with the growing demand for water
to supply urban areas, has led to over-exploitation and will
eventually exhaust the aquifers.
The problem of water in the Mediterranean has become worse due to
the historic process of transformation and drainage of wetlands,
carried out by farmers in order to increase their agricultural
land or as a result of policies seeking to eliminate sources of
disease (malaria), and incidentally make land available for urban
or agricultural expansion.
A large part of the sewage and industrial wastes discharged are
untreated. Though statistics are scarce and unreliable, some data
show 46% of the population lacks water treatment plants. An
estimated 70-80% of the pollution input into the Mediterranean is
land-based.
2.6. Mediterranean soils and
agricultural expansion
Agriculture occupies about 28% of the land in the
Mediterranean Basin and accounts for 15-18% of the GDP of the
eastern and southern regions and 3-5% in Spain, France and Italy.
The soils on the Mediterranean coastline are at great risk of
erosion, especially erosion by water on the northern shoreline,
and both water and wind erosion on the southern and eastern
shoreline. This phenomenon is made worse by deforestation and
overgrazing. Over the course of history, terrace cultivation of
hillsides has not only made agricultural use possible, but has
also effectively prevented erosion by runoff. The aridity typical
of most of the soils in the Mediterranean Basin means that the
salts present tend to rise to the surface where they are
concentrated, especially when irrigation systems are badly
designed and where the area has deficient drainage, increasing
the risk of soil salination.
The limitations acting on agriculture, the heavy population
pressure and the dependence on food supplies have all had a
strong impact on the agricultural land. The agricultural land
consists of a few alluvial plains (the Po, Nile, Rhone, Ebro) and
small separated agricultural valleys. The increase in
agricultural production has occurred because of increasingly
intensive land use, increase in the area of irrigated land and
the introduction of machinery.
In the first place, the area under irrigation has increased
massively. Between 1970 and 1985 the area irrigated increased by
3 million hectares, and more than 60 million hectares are now
irrigated. In six countries, more than a quarter of all
cultivated land is irrigated, and in Egypt all cultivated land is
irrigated. The increase in the area under irrigation has been
especially large in Egypt, Spain, Turkey and Italy. In Spain, the
area under irrigation increased from 1,450,000 hectares in 1950
to 3,261,000 hectares in 1986, and the number of reservoirs
increased from 200 to 899.
In the second place, the use of fertilizers has increased 50%
since 1970, and is particularly high in the countries of the
northern shoreline, especially in France and Italy, and in Egypt,
where fertilizer use is about 250 kg per hectare. In the rest of
the south of the basin, except for Turkey and Israel, it does not
reach 40 kg per hectare.
Finally, in terms of the introduction of machinery, the number of
tractors in use is known to have increased about 40%. This large
increase is due to just a few countries, Italy, France, the
former Yugoslavia and Israel.
To sum up, though it is true that agriculture is becoming
increasingly intensive throughout the Mediterranean region, but
it is occurring unequally, as it is much greater in the north
than in the south. The use of fertilizers in the south, with the
exception of Egypt, is low and the introduction of machinery is
also in its early stages. The introduction of irrigation has
changed landscapes, has increased the risk of salination and has
caused the over-exploitation of aquifers. The use of agricultural
chemicals has caused serious pollution problems and has led to
cases of eutrophication. Use of machinery aggravates the problem
of erosion in soils that are already vulnerable to erosion by
water and wind.
2.7. Marine resources
The exploitation of marine resources has always been an
important activity in almost all the countries of the
Mediterranean, and their consumption habits lead to relatively
high demand for marine products. It is estimated that consumption
of marine resources is about 12 kg per person per year, and
varies greatly, from 0.5 kg in some areas (Lebanon) to more than
30 kg in others (Spain). Although 1,520 marine species live in
the Mediterranean, less than 90 are exploited.
Fisheries catches increased greatly after 1955, when they were
estimated at 500,000 tonnes per year, reaching more than a
million tonnes in the mid 1970s, when they stabilized. This is a
small fraction of the world total catch, about 1.2%, though it
represents about 5% in terms of value. According to experts,
these figures may underestimate the true figure by about 30%,
because it is a craft activity and there are no accurate and
reliable records of catches. The countries of the northern
shoreline are responsible for more than 78% of the total catch,
the main fishing countries being Italy, Spain, Greece, Tunisia,
Turkey and Algeria. Italy is clearly the largest, catching more
than 500,000 tonnes per year, far more than Spain, the country
with the second largest catch, 140,000 tonnes, and followed by
Greece and Tunisia, with approximately 100,000 tonnes. The
largest catches are in the Adriatic Sea and the Ionian Basin and
are mainly coastal pelagic species, which together with the
oceanic pelagic species, represent almost 50% of the total catch
in the Mediterranean.
Fishing activity is being very negatively affected by habitat
destruction due to pollution, from sources on land and at sea.
The fishing nets used are not very selective, leading to a high
by-catch of unwanted fish or other fauna that are caught with the
desired species, and which are thrown back into the sea. Though
there are no data on this wasted by-catch, in the Mediterranean
it is estimated to 40-50% of the total catch, and this reflects
an irrational and unsustainable use of marine resources.
2.8. Pollution and environmental
degradation
The main causes or sources of pollution and environmental
degradation in the Mediterranean Basin are essentially located on
the coastline. It has been shown that about 70% of all urban
liquid wastes are discharged without treatment. On the basin's
southern coastline, this figure reaches 90%. Each coastal city is
estimated to discharge an average of about 10 litres of waste for
every metre of coastline. Almost 60% of all the pollution of the
Mediterranean is generated in France, Italy and Spain, with about
35% flowing into the Adriatic. An estimated 70-80% of all the
industrial pollution entering the Mediterranean is generated in
Italy, Spain and France.
The Mediterranean, which represents only 0.7% of the area of the
world ocean, is the site of 35% of the world's crude oil trade,
15% of the chemicals trade, and 17% of world trade. In addition,
there is also a substantial part of world trade in toxic and
persistent chemicals, generally byproducts of the petroleum
industry. There has been a major reduction in the number of
ships, but this has been more than compensated by the fact that
they are now much bigger, so that the risk of major environmental
damage due to accidents has increased considerably. An estimated
60-70% of pollution due to oil and oil derivatives in the
Mediterranean is caused by routine unloading, cleaning
bilge-water, etc. This all means that the Mediterranean is one of
the dirtiest seas in the world, with a surface tar concentration
10 times greater than that of other regional seas; pollution due
to oil discharges from the petroleum traffic in the Mediterranean
is equivalent to a disaster on the scale of the Exxon Valdés
every three weeks.
2.9. Industrialization and its
environmental impacts
The discharge of solid wastes is especially serious near
coastal urban and industrial centres. Sewage is especially
important in the southern and eastern shoreline, while industrial
discharges are worse on the northern shoreline. The areas with
the worst problems are the Nile delta in Egypt, the coastal areas
of Algeria, the coastline of the Aegean Sea, the coastline of the
Sea of Marmara in Turkey, the southwest coastline of France, and
the northeast coastline of Spain. It is estimated that in the
Nile delta, by the end of this decade solid waste production will
be about 16,920 tonnes per day, and they will be 5,760 in the Sea
of Marmara, and in northeast Spain and southwest France it will
be about 4,200 tonnes per day. The most worrying of the solid
residues are the ones that are potentially toxic, mainly the
result of industrial activities and consisting of chemicals and
heavy metals, and these are followed by the toxic wastes
generated by lesser industries, such as tanneries, textiles,
electronics, etc. Regulation of these matters is limited,
fragmented, and in some cases very lax, ineffective or simply
non-existent.
The problems of the deterioration of the Mediterranean are made
worse by the discharges into the sea from activities on land,
such as the diffuse pollution (generated by the agricultural
sector), or discharges from the industrial activities sited in
the most important watersheds, such as the Llobregat, Ebro,
Rhône, Po and Nile.
Almost all the rivers in Italy discharge into the Mediterranean
after flowing through some of the most industrialized areas in
the Mediterranean Basin. The Po valley alone generates 50% of all
Italy's industrial discharges, and is the largest source of
pollution in the Adriatic; the Po valley alone is responsible for
75-80% of all the nitrogen and phosphorus discharged into the
Adriatic, and is thus the main cause of its eutrophication. The
Adriatic is largely landlocked and so its exchanges with the rest
of the Mediterranean are limited, meaning it is at risk from
phenomena like eutrophication due to the accumulation and
concentration of discharges, especially organic matter and the
nitrogen and phosphorus pollution mentioned before. The Po also
contains high amounts of copper, cadmium, chrome, lead, nickel,
zinc, mercury, etc.
The problems of the Adriatic are made worse by the industries
sited in the former Yugoslavia, especially those concentrated in
Split, Rikjeka, and to a lesser extent, those in Sibenik and
Zadar. This pollution is mainly atmospheric, because most of the
energy is obtained by burning lignite and coal with a high sulfur
content, as in the case of the power plants in Kosovo,
Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia and Slovenia, in addition to which
there are large emissions from iron and non-ferrous smelters (in
Zenica, Novi Sad, Trepca and Sibenik), all of this in addition to
the severe air pollution in the capital cities (Ljublana, Zagreb,
Sarajevo and Belgrade), where sulfur emissions have on occasions
doubled the maximum levels laid down by the World Health
Organization.
The other main Italian industrial cities are Porto Marghera (near
Venice, and which also affects the Adriatic), Genoa, and the Bay
of Naples, both on Italy's western coastline, and which have a
major impact on the Ligurian and Tyrrhenian Basins.
Much of the industry in France is located in Paris-Île de
France, Lille, etc., but there is much industry around Lyon, in
the Rhône Basin, and in the Clermont-Ferrand region. The Rhône
is responsible for one of the largest inputs of organic matter
into the Mediterranean. In addition to these impacts there are
also discharges from industries located on the French coastline,
i.e., Marseilles, Nice and the Gulf of Fos-Etang de Berre,
probably one of the most important industrial zones in France.
Catalonia is responsible for about 70% of Spain's industrial
pollution discharges into the Mediterranean, including discharges
from the textile industry, fertilizers, petrochemicals,
refineries, steelworks, and tanneries (Barcelona houses about 40%
of the Spanish tanning industry). The other major sources of
pollution are Roquetas de Mar (mercury and lead), Alicante and
Castellón (cadmium) and the petrochemical plants in Sagunto,
Tarragona, Cartagena, and especially the Bay of Algeciras and
Portman Bay
.The relatively rapid industrialization of the southern and
eastern part of the Mediterranean Basin, and its concentration in
the urban coastal areas, together the relatively lax
environmental regulations and the lack of adequate
infrastructure, are all leading to increased pressure on the
Mediterranean. Some of these major centres of pollution are
located in the Nile Basin in Egypt, especially in the
Cairo-Alexandria conglomeration, the zone of Algiers in Algeria
and the Turkish coastline in the east of the basin. In the case
of the Nile Basin, over its length, the Nile receives not only
sewage discharges but also discharges from the industries located
on its banks, including the sugar plants in Quos and Kom-Ombo in
Upper Egypt, the fertilizer plants in Talka, the cement plants in
Helwan, the tanneries in Cairo and the industries of all types in
Alexandria and Shoubrah El Kheima, as well as the chemical plant
at El-Misr which discharges mercury directly into the
Mediterranean.
In Algeria pollution is particularly serious in Skikda, Arzew and
Annaba due to the existence of fertilizer plants, oil refineries
and chemical industry plants. Pollution with heavy metals, PCBs,
acids and solvents is especially serious. Finally, on the Turkish
coastline the most important centres of pollution are
Istanbul-Izmit, Smyrna and Adana-Mersin. The Bay of Izmit, which
receives discharges from more than 100 paper, petrochemical,
agricultural and food processing, fertilizers, tanneries, olive
oil mills, soap, textile, and other installations, is estimated
to be the most polluted in Turkey. Its pollution load includes
mercury, cadmium, chrome, zinc, etc. The concentrations of
mercury and cadmium are estimated to exceed the average value for
the Mediterranean by a factor of ten. Contamination of a similar
type is found in Smyrna.
2.10. Tourism
The impact of tourism is especially important; between June
and September, the Mediterranean is estimated to receive 45
million domestic tourists and more than 50 million foreign
tourists, the equivalent of the entire population of Spain and
Italy combined, and concentrated in the thin coastal strip
between the mountains and the sea, or on some of the islands. In
1984 the Mediterranean accounted for 35% of the world tourist
market, and in 1996 it continued to represent 30%, with 183
million tourists.
Tourism's economic importance can be seen from the fact that the
income it generated in 1990 was 73,159 million dollars, 53% of
European tourism revenue and 29% of world tourism revenue. The
percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) attributed to tourism
in 1992 was 8% in France and 9% in Spain. In the south of the
Mediterranean Basin, it represented 27% in Cyprus, 17% in Malta,
7.1% in Egypt and Tunisia, 5.1% in Morocco, 4.2% in Israel and
smaller percentages in the other countries.
Tourist pressure is aggravating the problem of water pollution
and the over-exploitation and possible exhaustion of aquifers,
and it also accentuates the phenomenon of human concentration and
waste production. In 1989 tourist demand implied demand for more
than 25,228 hectares of land for facilities, 40 million m3 of drinking water (500 to 800 litres per person
per day in a luxury hotel, far more than the average consumption
of a permanent resident in these tourist areas), and this
represented the creation of 144,000 tonnes of urban solid
discharges and 24 million m3 of sewage.