(Photo By: Eduard Marmet/Wikimedia Commons)
By: Maya Margit/The Media Line - November 21, 2020
Humanity’s most precious resource is becoming scarce.
Due to climate change as well as growing populations and poor resource management, whole areas in the Middle East are transforming from once-fertile ground into barren wasteland.
Prof. Jay Famiglietti is executive director of the Global Institute for Water Security at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, Canada. A world-renowned hydrologist, he was previously senior water scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
According to Famiglietti, the Middle East is one of the world’s top hotspots in terms of freshwater loss. He estimates that in recent years, parts of Turkey, Iraq, Syria and Iran have together lost nearly 300 million acre-feet of groundwater, equaling roughly two and a half times the volume of the Dead Sea, which is located between Jordan and Israel.
Read More: Jerusalem Post