According to a UN Environment Programme report, in the coming years, Arab region is faced with the danger of water scarcity and could be hit hardest by the potential of direct and indirect impacts linked with climate change. Achim Steiner, head of UNEP said that the Arab countries were now among most water- scarce in the world. The report says that there had been a decline in per capita water availability with an average of only 1,000 cubic metre per inhabitant per year, as of 2008. It further says that climate change is likely to aggravate these trends in the form of loss of coastal zones, more severe droughts and desertification, increased groundwater salinity, and a surge in epidemics and infectious diseases. Steiner said it is in the interests of nations across the region to constructively engage in the climate change negotiations.