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Potential Water Conflicts in the Middle East
 These are the article's last few paragraphs. RTWT for even more insights into this calamity in the making. Israel and the Palestinians The limited surface resources have led to widespread scarcity of the fresh water resources, resulting in a heavy reliance on groundwater as the major source for various uses. The contribution of surface water to the overall water balance is limited and marginal. "Nowhere are the problems of water governance as starkly demonstrated as in the Occupied Palestinian Territories." According to the UNDP report, "Palestinians experience one of the highest levels of water scarcity in the world." This scarcity is attributed to physical scarcity and political governance. The report estimates that, on a per capita basis, people living in the Occupied Palestinian Territories have access to 320 cubic meters of water annually, "one of the lowest levels of water availability in the world and well below the threshold of absolute scarcity." The Israeli population, which is about twice the size of the Palestinian population, uses seven and a half times the amount of water used by the Palestinians. The discrepancy in the use of water has to do with politics as well as with life style, the ratio of urban population and the levels of economic development. Any future settlement between Israel and the Palestinians must address the issue of water. The UNDP report recommends the 1994 peace agreement between Israel and Jordan as a model for Israel and the Palestinians. The agreement allows Jordan to store winter waters in Lake Tiberias [Lake Kinneret]; at the same time, it allows Israel to use, on a rental basis, a number of water wells in Jordan to irrigate Israeli agriculture. The report also refers to a regional initiative for regional cooperation. The Middle East Desalinization Research Center, based in Muscat, Oman, has been successfully promoting multilateral research into effective desalinization techniques for more than a decade. Its council has representatives from the European Commission, the U.S., Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian National Authority. Virtual Water Trade Some of the findings of the UNDP report are both fascinating and disturbing, none more so than the observation that it takes 11,000 liters of water-roughly the daily amount available to 500 people living in an Urban slum-to produce a single hamburger. Countries can reduce water stress by importing cereals and grains and, hence, the water imbedded in them. Stated differently, by importing cereals countries save the water, often in shrinking quantities, they would otherwise use to produce their own cereals. To produce their own with the use of scarce water resources, would drive many countries into the equivalency of water bankruptcy. Putting to best practice the principle of "comparative advantage," water-poor countries must rely on water rich countries to supply them with their grains and even their beef. Conclusion As the competition for water between a growing population and agriculture intensifies, it is certain that the issue will be settled in favor of the population, driving many countries in the Middle East into a growing dependency for their grains and cereals on countries, mostly democratic and liberal, for their survival. The "virtual" water trade could become a "real" threat to the security and independence of the importing countries much as these same countries feel threatened by their dependence on oil from non-democratic countries. Water will remain one of the most volatile issues in the Middle East and the source of potentially serious conflicts. The oil rich countries have resolved their water shortage through desalination. Israel is moving in that direction as well. Countries with more restricted financial resources such as Syria, Jordan, Morocco and Yemen are constrained from going through the desalination path. Rapidly growing population and a trend toward urbanization will heighten water shortages and exacerbate potential political or military conflicts. Water is the key to war or peace. Borders can be redrawn, refugees resettled, trade barriers can be removed and agriculture reformed and made more efficient. But water will still be required to meet basic human needs. Population growth and a shift toward urbanization will render these needs even greater in the future. The entire article is a fascinating examination of the role water plays in Middle Eastern politics. Nowhere is it a more contentious subject than with the Israelis and Palestinians. The conclusion above notes some truly momentous shifts that are taking place as water supplies increasingly are diverted from agricultural use over to public consumption. Inadequate waste water treatment or plain dumping of raw sewage, salt accumulation in arable soil, intrusion of seawater into aquifers and industrial effluent pollution all play a serious role in reducing available drinking water supplies. Insufficient attention has been focused upon the Palestinians and their lackluster efforts to create infrastructure in lieu of armaments. The diversion of sewage piping into rocket manufacturing highlights their irresponsibility with respect to water management. It should come as no shock then that the Palestinians experience some of the highest levels of water scarcity in the world. What remains far less publicized is that their water poverty is largely self-imposed. Through their irresponsible conduct they endanger not only themselves but the water supply of other nations as well. Totally unsurprising is the fact that Palestinian water mismanagement has the greatest negative impact upon Israel. Dumping of their raw sewage into the Mediterranean threatens intake quality and performance of Israeli desalination plants. Excessive pumping from deep level aquifers is allowing seawater intrusion to ruin them for drinking purposes. As hostile Arab nations undergo water depletion, their abandonment of farming makes them vulnerable to those that export the cereal grains they are becoming more dependent upon. These grain exporters are usually Western countries that are growing increasingly intolerant of Islamic terrorism. They eventually could impose mass starvation simply by halting food sales to MME (Muslim Middle East). It defies comprehension that so much of the MME routinely antagonizes those who will eventually control their fate. Islams monumental hubris simply cannot humble itself long enough to grasp the consequences of committing constant terrorist atrocities against those who hold the keys to this worlds food larder. Death by starvation is every bit as final as death by bombardment with nuclear weapons and there is no residual radioactive fallout afterwards. The MME is teetering on the brink of devastating environmental collapse even as they continue to stab at those who could rescue them. The Wests patience wears ever more thin in the face of such monstrous ingratitude. Posted by: Zenster 2007-07-07 |
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