Iran Press/Middle East: It was almost one and a half year ago that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu released a video in which he personally addressing the Iranian people by announcing the launch of a Persian-language website to address Iran water crisis, a phenomenon that he claimed threatens lives of tens of millions of Iranian people.
In the video message, the prime minister offered Israel’s water expertise to Iran after pouring himself a glass of water.
Ironically, Experts at the World Resources Institute (WRI) warned in their recent report that “Extreme water stress affects a quarter of the world's population” and guess what? Israel that once proposed to help Iran to get rid of the water crisis, itself ranks second "Most Water-stressed in the World", Iran Press reported.
Seventeen countries face "extremely high water stress" because they consume 80 percent of their available water annually, a situation worsened by more frequent dry shocks tied to climate change, the World Resources Institute (WRI) said.
Qatar is ranked as the world's most water-stressed country, followed by Israel and Lebanon, Iran and Jordan. In Africa, Libya and Eritrea are suffering from the worst shortages.
"Water stress is the biggest crisis no one is talking about. Its consequences are in plain sight in the form of food insecurity, conflict and migration, and financial instability," said Andrew Steer, president, and CEO of the WRI.
Even in countries with low water stress overall, individual areas could still experience extreme water stress. The USA ranks 71st on WRI's list, but the state of New Mexico is classed as experiencing extremely high-stress levels.
India ranked 13th among "extremely high" water-stressed nations. But with a population of more than 1.3 billion, it has over three times more people than the other 16 countries combined whose agriculture, industry and municipalities depend on avoiding water "bankruptcy".
The world's water supplies are threatened by many factors, from climate change to mismanagement in the form of water waste and pollution, Washington-based WRI said.
It is worth noting that water crisis in Palestinian territories, neighboring Israel that once claimed that it wanted to help Iran, the situation has gotten worse in recent years. According to WHO, 97 percent of the water pumped from Gaza’s aquifer, which is depleting at a rapid rate, fails to meet the minimum standards of quality for potable water and in fact, the very sustainability of the Gaza Strip’s basin is now in jeopardy and Gaza could become uninhabitable by 2020.
The occupied West Bank is not much better off as Palestinians are denied access to their own water resources. They are unable to dig new wells in most of the occupied West Bank, forbidden from utilizing Jordan River water and are forced to purchase nearly a quarter of their own water from Israel. 101/212/211
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