Water Wars
Water is becoming a key security issue in the Middle East and a potential source of bitter discord. Israel and its Arab neighbors already are water-stressed economies.
After a five-year drought, the region is headed toward a water calamity that could overwhelm all peace efforts. The Jordan River now has large sections reduced to a trickle. The Sea of Galilee is at its lowest point ever. The surface area of the Dead Sea has shrunk by a third. Iraq’s ancient marshes are now marked by large swaths of stalks and caked mud. In northern Syria, more than 160 villages in two years from 2007 to 2009 have run dry of water and been deserted by residents. In Gaza, 150,000 Palestinians have no access to tap water. In Israel, the pumps at the Sea of Galilee, its largest reservoir, are exposed above the water level, rendering pumping impossible.
The same holds true for many pumping stations across America’s lakes and rivers. Not only are they running low, but what water and fish remains is polluted with high levels of mercury. The U.S. Geological Survey’s test of fish pulled from 291 streams from 1998 to 2005 found every one of them contaminated with some level of mercury. The study found 27 percent of the fish had mercury levels above the level Environmental Protection Agency considers safe for human consumption. Previous research has found levels of concern in ocean and lake fish. Mercury is a neurotoxin especially dangerous to development in infants and fetuses.
I swam in the Sea of Galilee, the Dead Sea and the River Jordan on several occasions since the early ’60s and enjoyed their refreshing history-soaked waters ─ and did so again this week. Watching the waters at the cradle of Western Civilization and the Tibetan plateau that feeds the cradle of Eastern Civilization gradually disappear before our very eyes as we blindly and idly stand by as the world drowns itself in more wars and sorrow is not only unbelievable ─ but a self-inflicted human calamity. The potential regional and global devastation a water shortage in these seas and rivers can cause is nothing short of Armageddon.
After a five-year drought, the region is headed toward a water calamity that could overwhelm all peace efforts. The Jordan River now has large sections reduced to a trickle. The Sea of Galilee is at its lowest point ever. The surface area of the Dead Sea has shrunk by a third. Iraq’s ancient marshes are now marked by large swaths of stalks and caked mud. In northern Syria, more than 160 villages in two years from 2007 to 2009 have run dry of water and been deserted by residents. In Gaza, 150,000 Palestinians have no access to tap water. In Israel, the pumps at the Sea of Galilee, its largest reservoir, are exposed above the water level, rendering pumping impossible.
The same holds true for many pumping stations across America’s lakes and rivers. Not only are they running low, but what water and fish remains is polluted with high levels of mercury. The U.S. Geological Survey’s test of fish pulled from 291 streams from 1998 to 2005 found every one of them contaminated with some level of mercury. The study found 27 percent of the fish had mercury levels above the level Environmental Protection Agency considers safe for human consumption. Previous research has found levels of concern in ocean and lake fish. Mercury is a neurotoxin especially dangerous to development in infants and fetuses.
I swam in the Sea of Galilee, the Dead Sea and the River Jordan on several occasions since the early ’60s and enjoyed their refreshing history-soaked waters ─ and did so again this week. Watching the waters at the cradle of Western Civilization and the Tibetan plateau that feeds the cradle of Eastern Civilization gradually disappear before our very eyes as we blindly and idly stand by as the world drowns itself in more wars and sorrow is not only unbelievable ─ but a self-inflicted human calamity. The potential regional and global devastation a water shortage in these seas and rivers can cause is nothing short of Armageddon.
posted by Peter de Krassel's Custom Maid Politics at 8:22 PM
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