Relation of Trade Measure to Resource Impact a. Economic Data 17. Since Turkey is not self-sufficient in oil, there may be some sort of agreement in the future that trades oil for water. As the population of the area increases and available water resources are depleted, the problem of water will become very severe. Cholera outbreaks in this 1980s during years when water was scarce give us an indication of how quickly disease can spread without adequate potable water supplies.
Food also becomes a problem as nations have to depend on others to feed their own people.
Since most nations in the Middle East do not trust one another, they try not to be dependent on others. This is especially true in the area of agriculture. Although many food items may be cheaper to import, most of the countries prefer to grow their own food. This uses a very large portion of some nations available water supplies. This certainly makes economic sense, but fear and distrust have more to do with policy in the Middle East than economic sense.