Via Natasha Hall in csis.org: The Middle East is no stranger to water scarcity and violence. For centuries, conflict has exacerbated water insecurity and vice versa. But the region is now at a tipping point. Groundwater aquifers are running dry or becoming contaminated, populations are exploding, and borders are more hardened than ever, making resettlement—a time-tested survival strategy—impossible. As is the case across much of the region, water security fell prey to the lack of political progress on resolving underlying conflicts. Without that political progress, donor governments and aid agencies have resorted to applying technical fixes to political problems. But in the Palestinian territories, as in much of the world, water insecurity has been a sign of deeper dysfunction.
