In China, the Yellow River, which caused so much grief throughout that country's long history because of flooding, is running dry because of the rapid expansion of agriculture, industry and population along its meandering 3,600-mile path. In the former Soviet Union, the Aral Sea remains the world's foremost example of the kind of ecological calamity mismanagement of water resources can cause. When Soviet central planners decided to grow cotton in the desert, they diverted water from the rivers flowing into the Aral Sea to irrigate crops on which pesticides were heavily applied. The sea has since shrunk to two-thirds of its former size, leaving the old port town of Muynak 30 miles from the present coast. Today, the native fish are all gone, and salt and toxic dust from pesticide runoff chokes the area.
Children suffer chronic respiratory diseases as a result.
Even the Colorado River that has made Los Angeles bloom in a virtual desert is ranked as one of the world's most stressed and over-committed rivers. More than anywhere else, the Middle East exemplifies the perils and possibilities created by the water crisis. Turkey, in the far north, is blessed with abundant water supplies. As the rivers run down into Syria and on into Jordan and Israel, however, there is scarcely enough water for the present population of the Jordan Valley. And if current trends continue, this population will double in the next 20 years.