Water in the Middle East - Is the decline of water a worse nightmare than ISIS?

Evening on the Nile River in Cairo

"The water war is a ghost threatening the Middle East.

Though the poor populations of this region are the only ones paying for the price of the oil conflict, the water wars will not spare anyone."

These dire words are found at the end of an important article about the declining water resources in one of the most conflict-prone regions of the world.

Water in the Middle East: this topic doesn't make the headlines every day, but it is an extremely urgent issue.

Recently, Egypt had to use its limited reserves in the Aswan Dam to generate electricity for the growing population of a nation that exists on either side of one single river. Read more.

Egypt and Ethiopia are at logger-heads over Ethiopia's new dam on the Blue Nile. Read more.

Water shortages affect Syria, Iraq, Iran, Jordan, Israel, not to mention the nations of North Africa.

Iran's water shortage may be one of the worst crises, but we do not hear much about that, since our preoccupation seems to be taken up with geo-political issues, especially the issue of a possible treaty to "solve" the urgent concern surrounding the "nuclear deal".  For an excellent article on the desperate shortage of water in Iran, read here.