Editor's note: Anthony C. LoBaido, currently on assignment in the Middle East, filed this report on the emerging water crisis in that region.

By Anthony LoBaido
© 2000, WorldNetDaily.com, Inc.

AMMAN, Jordan -- Rather than a battle over oil or even land, the next great war in the Middle East may well be a fight to gain control over the most precious commodity in the desert -- water.

Each country has a unique role in the water struggle. Turkey and Iraq have a lot of water but their policies are affected by their quasi state of war over the Kurdish issue. Because of international sanctions, Iraq can't market its vast water resources to needy Arab neighbors. Israel's burgeoning middle class, infused with the high-tech revolution, has a great and growing thirst for water -- water for showers, gardens and swimming pools. Fortunately for Israel, it has the water resources, at least today, to back up that thirst.

Jordanian flag

Israel's control and use of water has made its Arab neighbors thirsty -- many say -- for blood. Amman, Jordan, has no water a few days every week -- and running water only once per week -- while Israel controls aquifers in Gaza and the West Bank. Drilling for Palestinians is limited and to drill a well one needs to get government approval.

The current supply of water is about 75 percent less than what Palestinians need on a daily basis. Per capita, Israel consumes three times the water per day that the Palestinians do. And Israeli consumption grows almost 50 million cubic meters each year -- fueled, in part, by the one million immigrants that have arrived since 1990.

Israel's water-level use is evident for all to see. The islands around traffic lights in the Israeli settlements in the West Bank are green and filled with flowers. The settlers in the West Bank have green lawns and palm trees. The Palestinians, on the other hand, have water polluted with nitrates (about 300 milligrams of nitrates in every liter of water), which is harmful to the liver, kidney and to pregnant women and young children.

Yet, even though Israel has more water at its disposal, its quality is also less than ideal. Almost half of the water Israelis consume would not be fit for human consumption if international standards were enforced.

Israel's per capita daily usage of water is about 66 gallons per day. In Syria, the average citizen uses 50 gallons of water per day. In Lebanon, it is 41 per day and, in Jordan, the average citizen uses only 25 gallons per day. In the West Bank and Gaza, the Palestinians get by on 20 gallons per day.

Israelis are affected in other ways by the water problem in the Middle East. Today, the Sea of Galilee has been taken down to emergency levels and permanent salt-water damage and pollution may destroy the sea for future use.

A Jordanian youth with his horse near the Dead Sea

Nathan Romanovski, a Jewish-Russian immigrant and geology student at Hebrew University, is studying the potential impact of the joint Israeli-Jordanian plan for drying up the Dead Sea -- in order to drill for oil in the sea bed and harvest the fertilizer.

Romanovski told WorldNetDaily, "The aquifers and reservoirs are drying up. The main sources for water in the region -- the Hasbani River, Banyahs River, the Dan, the Jordan, the Yarmouk, the Zarqu, the Yarkon -- they need to be properly managed. And Turkey might help, along with Iraq, by releasing more water, which in turn can be used by citizens in Jordan, the PLO territories, Israel and the Gulf states."

War over water in the region is not without precedent. Israel and Jordan engaged in military battles over the Jordan River's tributaries prior to the 1967 Six-Day War. And the situation is getting worse by the day, month and year. Almost three-fourths of Iraq's crops died in the field in 1999 because of a lack of water. The Quwayq River in Syria has been pumped empty. Listing each and every water problem of the region would be a major task in and of itself.

The oasis near Lawrence of Arabia's headquarters at Azraq has been turned to sand. The area around Amman was once -- not long ago in geological time -- a paradise of oases. Large and abundant water pools gave life to rhinos, lions, elephants and a host of other animals today associated only with Africa and South Asia. The story of the savannah around Amman, which existed for millennia, is an old wives' tale for Arabians.

The notion of the information-driven global economy has a hollow ring here. In the Middle East, military strength, water and food are just as important as they were in the 19th century.

The water crisis plays prominently in peace negotiations between Israel and the PLO. The Palestinians -- whose leadership, the Palestine Liberation Organization, has for decades sought nothing less than Israel's total, albeit incremental, destruction -- want Israel to hand over land that sits atop 1.2 billion cubic meters of water resources. That is 50 percent of Israel's total holdings.

"No way," the Mossad station chief based in Amman, Jordan, told WorldNetDaily. "Never. Let the Arabs drink their oil. I hate to say this, but we need water for agriculture. Our scientific farmers have made the desert bloom in Israel. Agriculture is the ultimate security for any nation. Food doesn't come from the supermarket."

'There is not enough water, period," said Amos Epstein, president of Israel's state-controlled Mekorot Water Company. "We are in a catastrophic state. ... We could be in a crisis in 2001 that no one could describe."

So where will the future water supply needed by all of the residents in the Middle East come from? Will salt water from the ocean be made drinkable via the expensive process of desalination?

The desert's most valuable commodity -- water. The Port at Aqaba on the Red Sea.

One solution, at least for part of the Middle East, involves the Euphrates River in Turkey. For the Turks, the new Birecik dam will bring electric power, irrigation and economic vitality to the southeast of the nation, but it will hurt the Iraqis and the Syrians.

Said Romanovsky, "Moslems will tell you, 'No one owns the land, or the air or the water.' It is God's and God wants His children to share it with everyone.