**1. Introduction**

Earth is referred to as the water planet because 75% of Earth's surface is covered by water. More than 97 per cent of the Earth's water is contained within the oceans as saltwater. Less than 3 per cent of this water is freshwater, and most of it exists in glaciers, underground, lakes, rivers, and swamps. Water means life. Water is the key to sustainable development and is crucial for socio-economic and for human survival itself. The rise in population will increase water consumption which will intensify water demand, and this will limit the amount of water available per person (drinking, irrigation, industries and municipal needs). The most water-scarce areas are those with lack of freshwater resources and higher population growth rates. Water is also the core of climate change adaptation, serving as the major link between society and the environment. Climate change is already having many effects on the Earth and particularly on the water's Earth. In future decades, climate change is predicted to affect availability and distribution of water (precipitation, river, groundwater…). Thus, the handling of water will become ever more critical. It is further estimated that by 2025, more than half of the world's population will be living in water-stressed areas due to the world population growth, which is predicted to reach ~9.7B by 2050, causing further stress on water globally. Although water stress is a universal phenomenon, this chapter focuses on the continent of Africa with approximately 1.37B inhabitants [1] and more specifically the region of Northern Africa which includes a total of five countries, viz. Egypt, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia and Libya (**Figures 1** and **2**). Despite, each country in Northern Africa with its geological characteristics (geographic and climatology) and water management history, Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia have many common characteristics [4]. A map of Northern Africa with water stress is shown in **Figures 1** and **2**.

**Figure 1.** *Map of Northern Africa [2].*

*Managing Drought and Water Stress in Northern Africa DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.107391*

In Northern Africa, humans' activities depend essentially on water availability. Climate change impacts Northern Africa's water in different ways. It is a principal contributor to droughts (low precipitation and rising in temperature). Droughts are complicated phenomena generally associated with greatly reduced precipitation. Droughts are recurrent and often devastating threatening people's livelihoods in Northern African countries. Droughts will likely continue to decrease the average water availability in an already water-scarce region. These poor water management threats have led North African countries to overdraw water from rivers and aquifers and thus degrading already scarce water resources. Climatic variability in Northern Africa (rise of temperatures and low rainfall) will lead to approximately 22% of lack of sufficient water by 2050 [5], which will increase more the long periods of droughts in this region of the world [6].

The main objective of this chapter is to highlight drought and water stress in Northern African countries along with outlining the main approaches and methods applying to better water managing in every country of Northern Africa.
