The major rivers in SW Asia have become political issues because everyone needs to be able to use the water and there is only a limited amount. Dams built along the rivers have caused problems for people living further downstream because less water comes down the river to those people once the dam is built.

As countries in Southwest Asia have worked to modernize their systems of agriculture, water pollution has been a growing problem. Increased demand for irrigation to expand farming has led to overuse of rivers and streams.

Many countries in Southwest Asia are experiencing the increasing problem of water pollution. Farmers have begun using chemical fertilizers that run off from the fields and contaminate water supplies. Chemicals also lead to salt build-up in the soil, which eventually makes farming in those areas impossible.

NB: ____ Page 2 Getting this pollution cleaned up is difficult, because the Israelis, Palestinians, Jordanians, and Syrians blame one another for the contamination. Environmental groups call the water pollution problem in Southwest Asia a “ticking time bomb” that threatens the drinking supply for millions of people.

Turkey has a “water advantage” over other Middle Eastern countries because the Tigris and Euphrates rivers form in the country’s highlands. Turkey has developed the Southeastern Anatolia Project, which consists of 22 dams and 19 hydroelectric plants along the Euphrates River.

Tigris and Euphrates Rivers – begin in Turkey and travel through Syria and Iraq before emptying into the Persian Gulf. They are the largest rivers in Southwest Asia and are an essential source of water for the nations they pass through.

Israel

Meanwhile, Twelve out of the top seventeen most water-stressed countries listed were located in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region….Most Water-Stressed Countries In The World For 2019.

In recent decades, Turkey has made great strides in water resources development for domestic use, irrigation, and flood control and power generation. The dams and reservoirs built have enabled Turkey to save water from its brief seasons of rainfall to use throughout the year for various purposes.

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Water supply and sanitation in Jordan

The unequal distribution of water makes it so that either farmers and businesses that need the water for irrigation get most of the water and that numerous people that require the water will go without it and die of thirst, or people that need the resource for drinking water will get mostly all the water and leave …

It is common to misuse land by heavy irrigation. The overuse of water in agriculture is affecting the already scarce water resources. Water scarcity and water use affect agriculture (crop choice, growing seasons, and pests), fisheries, forestry, and livestock (pastures and pests).

Universal causes for a spread of arid environment are unsustainable agriculture practices and overgrazing. Agriculture uses 85 percent of water in this region. It is common to misuse land by heavy irrigation in the Middle East. In the area droughts are more frequent, and contribute to the changing landscape.

It impacts irrigation because landlocked countries don`t have easy access to water so it would be harder for them to irrigate crops and other things. It impacts drinking because if there is water pollution then they cannot receive as much water and it might be unsafe to drink.

Unequal Water Distribution: some regions of Africa have an overabundance of water, while others have very little water. This affects countries’ economic growth and development, restricts trade, and impacts agriculture.

Water is unevenly distributed around the world. Large portions of the world receive very little water from rainfall or rivers relative to their population. Global warming will change patterns of rainfall and water distribution.

Unequal Distribution of Water is when people do not have enough water to irrigate their crops.

The Earth is a watery place. About 71 percent of the Earth’s surface is water-covered, and the oceans hold about 96.5 percent of all Earth’s water. Water also exists in the air as water vapor, in rivers and lakes, in icecaps and glaciers, in the ground as soil moisture and in aquifers, and even in you and your dog.

The world’s water exists naturally in different forms and locations: in the air, on the surface, below the ground and in the oceans. Just 2.5% of the Earth’s water is freshwater, and most is frozen in glaciers and ice sheets. About 96% of all liquid freshwater can be found underground.