From: mtaghavi@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Amir Taghavi)
Subject: Middle East currency to change from oil to water, experts say
Organization: The Ohio State University
Date: Tue, 7 Apr 1992 04:08:31 GMT


	DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (UPI) -- The Middle East's first
environment exhibition opened Monday with experts warning the most
pressing issue for the next decade will be how to preserve dwindling
water resources in the region.
	Population growth, industrial expansion and the far-reaching effects
of Gulf War pollution will heighten demand for water, already a
disappearing resource, experts said.
	``The currency in twenty years is not going to be oil or gold. It's
going to be water,'' Maneka Gandhi, India's former enviornment minister,
said in an interview with United Press International.
	``Already, people are fighting over it or stealing it in our country.
Each state says they will not share their supplies with neighboring
states. Politicians are resigning over inadequate supplies.''
	Gandhi said the Gulf oil spill underscored an already serious water
shortage problem in India.
	``Tankers cleaning out their bilges have already polluted the Bay of
Bengal. Then there was the Gulf oil spill, so we are surrounded on both
sides with polluted water,'' she said. ``Seventy per cent of available
water in India is polluted.''
	Gandhi is scheduled to deliver the keynote address Tuesday at the
Dubai World Trade Center conference, which is drawing about 100
participants from 11 countries. Some are showing high-technology
products to wealthy Gulf states, which are spending billions of dollars
on water projects in the next five years.
	Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) officials are meeting in October to
discuss ways to ensure water supplies, UAE Electricity and Water
Minister Humaid al Owais told the official UAE news agency WAM.
	The region is particularly vulnerable to oil spills because of their
heavy reliance on Gulf water for drinking. About 70 per cent of their
demand is filled by the more than 100 desalination plants in the region,
which are costly to build and maintain.
	The UAE is spending $137 million on a new desalination plant and $900
million on other water and electricity projects. Bahrain has earmarked
$196 million on new desalination and utilities projects.
	Water demand is growing in GCC states. In Saudi Arabia, Kuwait,
Bahrain, UAE, Qatar and Oman demand will rise by ten per cent annually
due to population and industrial expansion.
	``The Gulf has one of the highest population growth rates in the
world due to the influx of expatriate workers. They are also
diversifying their economies by developing industry. That will put added
pressure on water resources,'' said Dr. Ibrahim Youssefg, a Gulf-based
economist.
	Foreign companies -- selling everything from oil booms to water
filters at the exhibition -- are seeking a share in the $1.2-billion
effort to clean up the Gulf.
	``In short, the whole Gulf region has suffered from the pollution
caused by the Gulf war. The real impact can only be realised in time,''
Nasser O. Al Saleh, Saudi Fisheries Co. manager said.
	Environmentalists fear the oil lakes covering 60 percent of Kuwait
may sink into the emirate's underground water table. A reduction in
rainfall in the last several years, and high evaporation rates
exacerbate the problem, environmentalists say.
	``The Tigris and Euphrates rivers provide some relief in the upper
Gulf, but during the past decade inflow from these rivers has
drastically been reduced because of massive irrigation projects in
Turkey, Iraq and Syria,'' al Saleh said.
	The UAE is considering plans to import water via pipeline from Turkey
to Oman to supplement its annual desalinated water production of 85
billion gallons at 17 plants.
	The Middle East water issue became a major bargaining point during
the Mideast multilateral talks held in Moscow in January.
	A United Nations survey concluded that without international
agreements on water sharing, nations which do not think they are
receiving their fair share could go to war.


Newsgroups: soc.culture.iranian