Assessing the water sector in Kuwait using SWOT analysis and the analytic network process

摘要

Natural water resources in Kuwait are very limited and do not meet the ever-increasing demand. This has compelled the government to construct desalination plants to compensate for the shortage of freshwater. However, desalination plants are not only capital-intensive but also consume a huge amount of energy in the form of fossil fuel, and hence inflict immense pressures on the country's economy. This paper examines different challenges facing the water sector in Kuwait in an attempt to recommend corrective actions for encountering and minimizing their adverse effects. Hence, a model is proposed, and the most important internal and external factors have been identified by implementing strategic factors such as strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats provided by the SWOT matrix. While the SWOT analysis is a powerful tool in exploring factors, it possesses deficiencies in the measurement and evaluation. Therefore, the analytic network process (ANP) is utilized to augment the SWOT analysis. Unlike other decision-making methods, ANP allows for measurement of dependency among factors and examines whether the dependency changes the priorities of strategies.