42a - Water Issues in SW Asia Remediation

desert

desalination

salt water

forest

Tigris River

Jordan River

Euphrates River

desalination plants

dams

oases (oasis)

rivers

sunlight

rainfall

heat

adding salt to freshwater

adding salt to seawater

removing salt from seawater

removing salt from freshwater

Dams are too expensive to build to be practical

Dams limit the water available to countries further downstream

Few countries have the technology needed to be able to build dams

Countries in Southwest Asia are not allowed to build dams along shared rivers

Use of chemical fertilizers means crops must be watered constantly

Enormous amounts of water must be used to produce chemical fertilizers

Chemical fertilizers have had very little effect on local water supplies in Southwest Asia

Water supplies have contaminated by the chemicals through runoff from the fields

Most countries do not know about these technologies

Drip irrigation is not very effective in a hot, dry climate

Few countries in Southwest Asia have access to seawater

These technologies are very expensive for the countries to use

There is so much water that countries want to collect as much as they can to sell to countries facing droughts on other continents

The water supply is distributed unevenly, and there is not enough water to support the needs of the people, so it must be used wisely

The mountain and plateau regions take water from the desert regions because the deserts have a surplus

There is water scarcity near rivers and coastlines