This conference is concerned with water and food security in the Arabian Gulf countries. The connection between water and food has become a source of great global concern as the world's population grows and its wealth increases. It is of special concern in the Arabian Gulf region, where population growth has been extremely rapid and diets have become more associated with foods which are very water intense in their production, such as animal products.

The current water situation in the GCC countries and approaches to deal with the issues of sustainable supplies in the future were the focus of three insightful papers by Al-Zubari, Dawoud and Abdelrrahman, and Al-Rukaibi. Since two of the authors are making presentations in this conference we can leave it to them to outline the current situation of water and food in this region and instead should focus on how to plan water resources to achieve better water and food security.

The Arabian Gulf region has very low rainfall, and many of its areas have large unpredictable rainfall variations from year to year, leading to major droughts and floods. It is the most water scarce region of the world. Also, it has had some of the most rapid rates of population and income growth worldwide. Water demands have been met primarily by investments to increase the supply available to cities and agriculture by pumping underground water, desalination, small surface dams to control runoff, and other applications of technology.