Solutions to water stress in the Middle East

Abstract EN

The social and cultural meaning ofivater embeds Middle Eastern life and sets the region apart from other world regions.

While there is much discussion of water enhancement strategies of the present day, it is worthwhile to consider that the essence of Middle Eastern cultural practices through the ages relates to apportioning scarce water.

The Middle East remains the driest area in the world, and is where competition for water among desert herders, and competition for water among river valley cultivators, has spawned remarkable revolutions in technology, economics, and in social organization that were transferred in time to the rest of the world.

The interactions of the two cultural traditions, as fairly separate niches, define the developmental history of the region; the desert of Arabia was the spiritual hearth area of the pastoralists, and the rivers valleys of the Fertile Crescent was the hearth area of plant domestication, urbanism, writing and the state.

The various strategies of dealing with water shortage today may be seen within the historical and cultural contexts of the age old Middle Eastern patterns of social interaction and cultural meaning.