Water Crisis in Middle East - Essay Example

Download file to see previous pages Still, conflicts related to water management have not been avoided. Current paper presents the various aspects of water crisis in Middle East. Reference is made, as example, to the water management problems of Israel, Palestine, Syria and Jordan. The academic studies developed in this field reflect different perceptions for the criteria on which water management should be based. This phenomenon could be explained by the following fact: the high development of technology has affected ‘the perception of people on nature’ (Selby 2005, p.332). Therefore, the terms under which water available in a particular area is characterized as a ‘resource’ have been differentiated today, compared to the past (Selby 2005). In this context, the rights of a state on its water resources are difficult to be fully defined while the support provided by international organizations for such issues is often inadequate (Selby 2005). On the other hand, the water resources worldwide face a continuous shrinkage, mostly because of the pollution but also because of the increasing global population. In certain countries, such as those of Middle East, the problem is more intense. In fact, there are countries in the particular region that can be characterized as ‘water – poor countries, meaning that their water production, per capita, is below 1000 m3/yr’ (Hadadin et al. 2010, p.197). ...
2. Water crisis in Middle East 2.1 History The lack of adequate water resources is not a recent problem. In addition, there are certain regions where the specific problem is quite critical: Africa, South and East Asia and Middle East are the regions that are mostly characterized by water shortage; in certain areas of these regions water shortage can be extreme leading local populations to survival concerns (Kummu et al. 2010, p.4). The water crisis developed in the above regions is characterized by the following trend: water shortage in each of these regions has been developed in different rate. More specifically, up to 1900s water shortage was extreme in Africa while from 1960s and up today water shortage is expanded across South Asia and Middle East (Kummu et al. 2010, p.4). In other words, the appearance and the rate of development of water shortage cannot be foreseen in advance (Kummu et al. 2010). In countries of Middle East water shortage is a common problem. For example, in Jordan ‘the drying of streams has led to the lowering of water levels across the country’ (Hadadin et al. 2010, p.197). In the above country, water shortage first appeared about 1960s and has highly expanded since then (Hadadin et al. 2010, p.197). The two factors that have been considered as enhancing the country’s water shortage problem are the following: a) the extremely dry climate and b) the rapid economic development of the country supported the increase of population, which, in its turn, led to the increase of need for water (Hadadin et al. 2010, p.197). In a recent report, where the ability of countries to cover their needs for water through their own ...Download file to see next pagesRead More