Water conflict.?

Question

Some experts have determined that with increasing pressures on water availability in the world, water will become the major reason for conflict. What are your thoughts about this prediction?

Answer 1

Anything that becomes a life and death issue can be a reason for a major conflict. Yes, water could be that conflict.

Answer 2

Hi - good question.

Having lived in the Mid-East for many a year, I can well beleive simple water becoming a big commodity issue.

In Dubai they need a smelting plant producing aluminium, and freshened sea water as a by-product.
In Saudia Arabia, the battle is on to dig in the deserts for fresh water, second only to oil. In The Sultanate of Oman, a huge power station exists that uses sea water for cooling, which is then de-salinated, pumped into water bowsers, and delivered to households with a big roof tank.

We in the UK are OK for more than plenty of water, so the import of H2O could become a sort of balance for importing oil.

A bloke called Geoffrey Pike once wrote a book about this in 1947, in which he suggerted towing ice-bergs to Africa, and letting them melt in a dry-dock, then pipe-lining it to remote villages.
It would work, but any politician putting it forward would be laughed at.

I'm alright, as I have a fine loval river, and means of purification, but if the water packs up in some less fortunate parts of the world, then indeed an uprising is on the cards.

I hope it will not come to that, but you are right in that it is possible


Bob on his Boat.
Surrounded by water !