Land Use and Lack of Water

Hey its Clare here. So now we are in Saudi Arabia, one of the most water scarce countries in the Middle East. There is little water because there are no or few rivers and lakes here. In order to get water it must be got out of the ground. The water in the ground has been lessened even more due to the burning of oil wells during the Persian Gulf War. At one point officials limited the water used in each household. I am glad that that has been lifted, but I still notice that water is used sparingly here. I have seen many farmers irrigating there crops to provide them with water. Over 90% of the water here is used for agriculture, so only 10% is used for drinking, washing, etc. Due to there being little water families are drinking unclean drinking water from steams or other bodies of water which can have lots of bacteria in them. Saudi Arabia has been in many disputes with neighboring countries, Qatar and Bahrain over the underground aquifers that hold a lot of the countries water. It seems silly to me that people would fight over water, though now I realize how lucky we are to live in the United States and have access to lots of water. I am glad we brought are own water, water seems to be like gold here.

http://www.iasps.org/strategic/water.htm