Thicker Than Blood: The Water-Famished Middle East
Solomon begins chapter fifteen by highlighting the water crisis in the Middle East and North Africa. These political volatile regions that are overpopulated and extremely dry have a long-lasting history of water tensions and political conflicts that as Solomon states, hold the potential to combust into a full-fledged water war. The crisis of water in the Middle East made it the first major region in modern world history to run out of water. Solomon states that in the 1960s, Jordan managed to run out of water alongside Egypt that ran out of water in the 1970s and many other countries in recent years.
A study that was made by The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment that reported back that in “the Middle East and North Africa, humans use 120% of renewable energy.” Which made these countries face many challenges that forced them to import growing food, virtual water and pump water out of underground aquifers for the sole purpose of surviving. Although the Middle East suffers from water scarcity, the region is most known of its oil wealth. Solomon emphasizes that this oil wealth helped contribute to the opening of a new era by facilitating the subsidization of modern pumping of deep aquifer water for irrigation.
There is no doubt that the Middle East was built depending on its rich oil resources, but there is no future for the Middle East without the availability of water since water is the key to a well-developed future. These regions cannot escape the fact that due to its dry geographical location; they will eventually run out of water. Therefore, oil is used as a temporary solution to the current water scarcity crisis in the Middle East and North Africa. Solomon states that “Modern engineering of the region’s surface waters began in earnest in the nineteenth century. Irrigation and cheap oil energy metamorphosed the traditional population-resource equation underlying each society.” However, the population has quadrupled between the years of 1950 to 2008 to almost 364 million which led to many countries to exceed its water and waterworks limit capabilities. Solomon reveals that more countries will exceed its water usage limit due to the fact that by 2050, the population will increase to 600 million which will lead the Middle East to turn into a demographic volcano ranging fromsocial unrest to geo-political conflicts.
Egypt, the most populous Arab country with almost 75 million people living in it according to the 2006 census, will reach to almost 100 million inhabitants in the near future. a country that’s inhabiting more people than it can actually take, is being ‘stretched to its breaking point’. The Nile river is the most important water source in Egypt and thus is a key factor in governing the density of Egypt. The formation of the high dam in Aswan in 1971, significantly transformed the hydrology of the Nile river from a ‘natural phenomenon’ to an ‘irrigation channel’ that produces hydroelectricity for the whole nation. However, the Nile river extends throughout many other countries including Ethiopia and Sudan which formed a geopolitical conflict between the countries since Egypt have the most control over the river consumption. This geopolitical conflict caused the rise of many riots in Ethiopia with the support of Israel and the United States. This conflict led to the formation of a settlement agreement in 1959 to divide the waters of the Nile river. As a result of the agreement, the river was divided between Egypt and Sudan, with Egypt having a greater access to the river more than Sudan, excluding Ethiopia and many other states who wanted a share of the Nile river. However, even with the Nile river, Egypt is still facing issues related to water scarcity mainly because of the continuous increasing population.
There was another political conflict related to water scarcity between Palestinians, Syrians, Jordanians and Israelis. Israel had the most control over the limited water sources shared between these countries which led to violent riots and protests. But Israel alongside with Turkey managed to enhance and develop their water programs to solve the problem of water scarcity. Also, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia used its oil to solve the problem of water shortage. They convert oil into water by desalinating water from the peninsula’s seas.
Noof Almansoori
Water Final Project 