Covenant Over Middle Eastern Waters: Key to World Survival

From northern Africa to the Middle East, China and the U.S., 25 nations face chronic water shortages, and Starr predicts growing water scarcity, pollution and drought unless world leaders undertake regional water security pacts, aquifer cleanup, pollution control, sewage reclamation and coordinated planning of water and agricultural sectors. This compelling report focuses on the dispute among Israel, Jordan, the West Bank and Gaza over dwindling, increasingly contaminated water supplies but also discusses global food shortages; the ``internal war'' within Israel over whether to dismantle that nation's agriculture; Saddam Hussein's genocidal war against Iraq's southern ``marsh Arabs''; the pollution of the Rio Grande and spreading epidemic hepatitis, cholera and cancer in the U.S.; and the 1992 Barth Summit in Rio. Starr is a Middle East expert and senior associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C. Illustrations not seen by PW. (June)