Water Wars

We in this part of the country (Ohio) tend to take plentiful clean water for granted.  But in 2016, that cannot be said for the whole country anymore.   California is in the middle of one of its biggest modern day droughts ever.  It is currently getting water from other parts of the United States because water is so scarce there.  People are discouraged to water their grass or even wash their cars.  

But this is not just a problem in California.  In fact it is a growing problem all over the world.  This is largely because of the growing population in the world, especially in third world countries.  Have you ever thought about how much water you really use a day?  You may say the water you drink and use to shower etc.  But there is a plethora of factors you don’t think about normally.  What about your food?  How much water does it take to raise a cow, or grow the fruits and vegetables you eat.  The numbers would probably shock you.  So you see a person uses much more water than you think.  So when you are adding thousands of people to certain parts of the world annually it can be a big problem.  The Middle East is the current hot bed for such conflicts or “Water Wars”.  And many people speculate that water will be the topic surrounding the next big war.  And that may sound surprising at first, but not so much when you think about it.  You can only survive about 3 days without water.  So you can bet that people will do extremely drastic things to get it.  Add a drought into the mix, and one country controlling the flow of a river to another, and you have recipe for conflict.  And it is exactly that, that is happening now in the Middle East.  Major dams on the Tigris and the Euphrates are now seen as weapons of war.  As Islamic states like Iraq and Syria scramble for the liquid gold that is water.  Old treaties are being re-evaluated due to new conditions.  Who get to uses the water for what is up for dispute.   Currently (Sept 2016) the tensions are growing with every passing day between many countries in the Middle East.  The UN is trying to intervene but is worried that this may be a conflict that is resolved in war.  It is situations like this that make us realize how crucial water really is.  Without water we can do virtually nothing, and that includes simply living.  Not only is it our responsibility to conserve water, but also to keep it clean, so we can re-use it.  It is not out of this world to think that someday the United States will have to deal with an issue like this.  The weather has shown us how quickly climate and water supply can change, and at alarming magnitudes like in California.  Knowing this, it would be wise to conserve as much water as we can now, and figure out new ways to keep it a clean and renewable resource, for everyone to use.