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Water Governance in the Tigris-Euphrates Basin
September 22nd, 2016
Via Future Directions International, a report on water governance in the Tigris-Euphrates basin: Key Points The states that share the water resources of the Tigris-Euphrates Basin have come close to creating a water sharing agreement in the past, but narrow self-interest derailed the project. Current regional political crises were caused, in part, by heightened food […]
Read more »Watching Weak Nation States Wilt Away
July 13th, 2016
Via Bloomberg, commentary on how environmental stress can tip weak nations into catastrophe: Venezuela was unraveling even before Hugo Chávez died in 2013. The situation has only gotten worse since. Despite having the world’s largest oil reserves, inflation has soared to 500 percent, the murder rate is the highest in the world, and chronic shortages of […]
Read more »How Assad Keeps The Water Running In The Islamic State
April 14th, 2016
Via Bellingcat, an interesting look at how the Islamic State is providing water services in Syria: The so-called Islamic State is said to be behaving like a conventional state in many ways. However, this open source investigation will show that the Syrian government — not Islamic State — keeps the water running in Islamic State’s de facto capital Raqqa […]
Read more »The Water Wars Waged By The Islamic State
November 25th, 2015
Courtesy of STRATFOR (subscription required), detailed analysis of the Islamic State’s use of water in its fight to establish a caliphate: The Islamic State’s use of natural resources to achieve its strategic goals is nothing new. Oil, one of the group’s biggest sources of funding, plays an especially important role in its calculations — something […]
Read more »Healing Wounds Of Conflict Through Water Diplomacy
October 31st, 2015
Courtesy of IWA’s The Source magazine, a very insightful article on an audacious roadmap for the Jordan River involving a new US$4.6 billion master plan to bring peace, understanding– and treatment plants–to the most contested and politicised waters on earth: In the 1840s, US naval officer William Lynch led three boats down the Jordan River […]
Read more »Deliberate Targeting Of Water Sources Worsens Misery For Millions of Syrians
August 26th, 2015
Via Inter Press Service, more sad news of the use of water as a weapon in Syria: The conflict in Syria has destroyed much of the country’s water infrastructure, leaving five million people suffering from a critical water shortage. Imagine having to venture out into a conflict zone in search of water because rebel groups […]
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