ABSTRACT
The importance of water as a source of life, wealth and power means that it is therefore a source of conflict. Worldwide, the supply of water for human consumption has reached a critical point. Almost 60 countries may face chronic water shortages by 2050; among them are most of the countries in the Middle East the exceptions being Iran, Iraq, Lebanon and Morocco. Israel was founded in part on the basis of irrigating and farming the desert; water is a particularly sensitive issue of national security. In Israel, the West Bank and Gaza the imbalance in the use of water is a constant source of resentment for Palestinians. Palestinian groups attempted to disrupt Israel's water supplies during the second intifada and Israel retaliated in kind. Iraq itself destroyed Kuwait's desalination plants in 1991 after its invasion, and Saddam Hussein first poisoned the water source for the Marsh Arabs in southern Iraq during the 1990s.
