I find it interesting that so many people still do not realise just how important water is to the human race and that a lack of water can and has led to war many times.
Yesterday I was on a forum discussing this very thing and the comments that were made by some forum members absolutely astounded me. How can people be so obtuse and uninformed?
For those individuals who do not know the importance of water and that a lack of freshwater is set to be the “petroleum of the next century,†and lack of it will cause wars, here are some salient facts:
- The revolution against Syrian president Bashar al-Assad started when youths of the town of Daraa in southern Syria got angry at the local governor’s corrupt allocation of scarce reservoir water. They were caught spraying anti-establishment graffiti and were arrested and tortured, which started the uprising by their tribes.
- Political power in Mesopotamia has always rested on the ability of its government to supply citizens with water; last year ISIS fought ferociously for control of the largest dam in Iraq and also took control of one at Fallujah and another at Haditha. US strikes drove them off, but the Turks, who hold ultimate control of the Tigris and the Euphrates, are on high alert for ISIS strikes.
- The highest and longest-running territorial dispute between India and Pakistan over Kashmir is mainly about control of the headwaters of the River Indus; Pakistan’s agricultural economy downstream is very dependent on this water.
- Then there is the age-old Israel versus Palestine conflict, which is mainly about… water! Israel diverted the River Jordan half a century ago via a canal called the National Water Carrier, leaving the Palestinians with a mere 15% of all the water in the West Bank.
Water is gold, people, and the more climate change happens the more wares will happen over water, and that is a fact that cannot be disputed. It is to this end that we all need to do what we can to combat climate change and to ensure that we are careful with our water-use so that we have sufficient freshwater for the future.
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