One reason can be a that the country is land-locked. This means that the land area has to rely on water from rivers; they are not able to resort to desalination to obtain freshwater. Moreover, the country may be situated in an area of rain-shadow. Thus the country sees rainfall less frequently than those who have rain. The area may be experiencing drought (less than 250mm of rainfall per year) which could contribute to the shortage of water in rivers and springs.