Finding 'streams in the desert' has never been more urgent for the people of the Middle East. Rapid population growth and a rising standard of living are driving water demand inexorably upward, while the natural supply has not increased since Biblical times. Ensuring a fair and adequate distribution of water in the region is vitally important for building a lasting peace among the nations of the Middle East. Addressing water needs from a geographical perspective, the contributors to this book analyze and assess the impact of scarce water resources in the Jordan River basin countries and territories (Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, and Syria) as these long-time antagonists work toward peace. After geographical and historical overviews, the authors envision the future - what the water issues may be when Israel and Syria begin negotiating, the 'hydro-security' needs of each nation, and the difficulties of planning for uncertainty. Without proposing any one ideal scheme, they discuss the possibilities for cooperative sharing of water resources, while honestly acknowledging the political constraints that may limit such projects. The final essay speaks to the needs of the one party so rarely represented at the negotiating table - the Jordan River itself. Hussein A. Amery is Assistant Professor of Geography at the Colorado School of Mines. Aaron T. Wolf is Assistant Professor of Geography in the Department of Geosciences at Oregon State University.
The internationally acclaimed story of the corporate takeover of our most basic resource and the inevitable global water crisis. In this "chilling, in-depth examination of a rapidly emerging global crisis" ("In These Times"), Maude Barlow and Tony Clarke, two of the most active opponents to the privatization of water show how, contrary to received wisdom, water mainly flows uphill to the wealthy. Our most basic resource may one day be limited: our consumption doubles every twenty years--twice the rate of population increase. At the same time, increasingly transnational corporations are plotting to control the world's dwindling water supply. In England and France, where water has already been privatized, rates have soared, and water shortages have been severe. The major bottled-water producers--Perrier, Evian, Naya, and now Coca-Cola and PepsiCo--are part of one of the fastest-growing and least-regulated industries, buying up freshwater rights and drying up crucial supplies. A truly shocking expose that is a call to arms to people around the world, "Blue Gold"shows in frightening detail why, as the vice president of the World Bank has pronounced, "The wars of the next century will be about water."
