The Middle East : Climate Change, Water Insecurity and Hydrodiplomacy

During the 1990s scholarship about water security abounded. However that debate abated at the ‎turn of this century. This lack of exploration is surprising, particularly given the negative impacts ‎of climate change upon the world's water resources, and the concomitant water insecurity that ‎has resulted. The present article addresses water insecurity in the Middle East, as a consequence ‎of climate change. I define "water security" to mean "the availability of an acceptable quantity ‎and quality of water for health, livelihoods, ecosystems and production, coupled with an ‎acceptable level of water-related risks to people, environments and economies."‎ Water insecurity generally leads to disputes over water, such as those between the states in the ‎United States, e.g., Kansas v. Colorado and Arizona v. California, or over the Ganga (Ganges) ‎River between India and Pakistan, and over the Nile between Egypt and its upper riparians or ‎between China and its co-riparians on the Mekong River. ‎ By 2050 the water deficit in the Middle East is expected to reach approximately 2 billion cubic ‎meters. In contrast the region's population is projected to double from the present day. What ‎will all these people do without water, particularly, given the mounting scientific evidence ‎regarding the Mediterranean region, which since 2000 has experienced 10 of the 12 driest winters ‎since 1902?‎ Indeed, Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Territories find themselves in an inescapable ‎conundrum: since 2008 each of them has finds itself in a situation where their water resources ‎have fallen below the minimum per capita threshold as set forth by the World Health ‎Organization, among others. The Article discusses these figures, and provides a new ‎understanding of the Middle East's problem, by employing very recent scientific data.‎