Water Story

Water scarcity is the sale of the most precious good in human life, and the quiet cry of the land.

“As easy as drinking water” has long been a Persian saying, because finding drinking water used to be the easiest and cheapest thing. Few expected that water in this country would become a crisis — one that grows harsher if it is left for later.

The wars of the later twenty-first century are widely expected to be fought over water, not oil or gold. Salt water in seas and oceans is 97 percent of the world’s water. Fresh water in rivers and lakes is 0.003 percent of all water.

The Middle East is the driest region on earth, and three quarters of its land is barren. It lives with recurring drought, uneven water, a deep gap between supply and demand, falling quality, rising farm use, and weak services.