Rivers of Fire: The Conflict over Water in the Middle East

(Paperback)

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Description

In a never-ending battle to match population growth with food and energy production, the countries of the Middle East have been frenziedly developing water resources without considering their neighbors' needs. The inevitable result has been more frequent and increasingly bitter conflicts. At the same time, a halting Arab-Israeli peace process continues. Are we indeed entering a new era in a new Middle East Focusing on international rivers and ground water, this timely study provides thoughtful-if pessimistic-answers to this question. Examining each water source in the Middle East, Soffer also weighs the implications of going to war over water and such unconventional solutions to the water shortage as desalination and importation.

Reviews

Highlights the complexity of water issues in the region . . . provides a useful introduction to the elements of water scarcity that mark, and will continue to shape, the Middle East, whatever the political and environmental fortunes of the region may be. -- Shaul Cohen, University of Oregon * Middle East Journal *
A comprehensive study covering the geo-politics of water conflict in the Middle East. Rivers of Fire is an important and well-written book that should be read by anyone interested in water and environmental problems in the Middle East and by those interested in the international politics of the region. * International Journal of Middle East Studies *
The book's greatest strength is that it provides five beautifully crafted regional hydro- and political geographies. . . . The book's greatest offering to the North American reader is its capacity for modeling. Conflicts among Middle Eastern nation-states sharing the Nile or the Tigris-Euphrates, for example, serve as fine counterparts to conflicts among the several federal states and provinces sharing the waters of the Colorado, the Columbia, or the Rio Grande. * Professional Geographer *
Ground breaking work... Soffer's work still remains one of the most extensive examinations of the crisis of water in the Middle East. * American Journal of Islamic Social Studies *
For questions concerning river sources, flow regimes, development projects, relations among riparian states, potential solutions, and future prospects . . . Soffer is the answer man. -- L. M. Lewis, Eastern Kentucky University * Choice Reviews *

Author Bio

Arnon Soffer is professor of geography at the University of Haifa, Israel.