Not a drop to drink

Al Ahram (Egypt) ^ | July 13, 2007 | Dina Ezzat

[liberallarry]

It has become a daily concern in many parts of Egypt, including the middle and upper class neighbourhoods of the capital. Nor does the problem exclude Heliopolis, the residential neighbourhood of no other than the president. "You wake up in the morning and you don't know whether you will be able to wash your face and go to the bathroom, or have to call up [a close relative or friend] who lives outside Heliopolis and Nasr City to see if you can pass by to shower and use the toilet," said Thurayah, a Heliopolis resident...

...The plight of these villages is echoed elsewhere in the country. On the front page of the Al-Ahram daily on Tuesday there was news of another demonstration protesting against the lack of water, this time in the village of Beshbish in the governorate of Gharbiya. Other dailies and weeklies have also reported stories of similar problems in other governorates where people have been infected because of using old water saved for long periods in tanks or dug out of superficial wells.

No governmental response has been made as of yet.

[wastedyears]

“And the moral of this story is this is what not to do when a bird sh!ts on you, the Rime, of the Ancient, Marinerrrrrrrrr!”

[The Duke]

On the front page of the Al-Ahram daily on Tuesday there was news of another demonstration protesting against the lack of water,...

Why does this sound like "protesting plate tectonics"?

[doc1019]

So, how can they properly pray to their moon god if they can’t wash their feet five times a day? Could come to a university or airport in the US, we guarantee them the ability to wash their feet via taxpayers expense.

[Flintlock]

Shame on us all.
It’s obviously the Joooooooooooooooooooooos’ fault!

[Ditter]

No water in the desert is Bush’s fault, right Larry? Global warming, it’s Bush’s fault too.

It’s a desert Larry, they should move where the water is!

[liberallarry]

I posted this in support of a favorite thesis of mine - too many people chasing too few resources. A water crisis in the middle east has long been predicted. Until now I didn’t know it was already here.

[FreedomCalls]

It’s a desert Larry, they should move where the water is!

"You want to stop world hunger? Stop sending these people food. Don't send these people another bite, folks. You want to send them something, you want to help? Send them U-Hauls. Send them U-Hauls, some luggage, send them a guy out there who says, 'Hey, we been driving out here every day with your food, for, like, the last thirty or forty years, and we were driving out here today across the desert, and it occurred to us that there wouldn't BE world hunger, if you people would LIVE WHERE THE FOOD IS! YOU LIVE IN A DESERT! YOU LIVE IN A F---ING DESERT! NOTHING GROWS OUT HERE! NOTHING'S GONNA GROW OUT HERE! YOU SEE THIS? HUH? THIS IS SAND. KNOW WHAT IT'S GONNA BE A HUNDRED YEARS FROM NOW? IT'S GONNA BE SAND! YOU LIVE IN A F---ING DESERT! GET YOUR STUFF, GET YOUR S--T, WE'LL MAKE ONE TRIP, WE'LL TAKE YOU TO WHERE THE FOOD IS! WE HAVE DESERTS IN AMERICA -- WE JUST DON'T LIVE IN THEM!"

[liberallarry]

You're wrong.

The Nile valley was very fertile and a great place to live for thousands of years...as long as it was asked to support tens of thousands instead of tens of millions.

Besides, where do you want them to move? To our country?

[Lorianne]

Bingo. Too large a population for the available resources of the region.

Same story in other places on the globe.

[art_rocks]

The will of Allah.

[FreedomCalls]

You're wrong.

Dude, it's a comedy routine from the late Sam Kinison.

[GOP_Raider]

When is the middle east gonna learn...whiskey is for drinkin’ and water is for fightin’ over! :)

[mamelukesabre]

No, no. That’s just us silly westerners. For the rest it’s...

Urine is for drinkin’ and wine will get you beheaded.

[Ditter]

Larry if you were dictator what would you do about the water shortage and the over abundance of people?

[bannie]

Funny thing about nature: If you don’t have enough to eat, you can’t breed...SO you don’t increase the population...stopping the cycle of having people live in places that don’t support life.

[liberallarry]

Larry if you were dictator what would you do about the water shortage and the over abundance of people?

Yah, that's the real hard question, isn't it? If I had a good answer and the courage of my convictions I'd have tried for the position long ago.

To begin with I'd assess the situation. Even a dictator can't make a scarce resource so I'd assure myself the problem could not be solved by increasing supply.

I'd begin with the easy, humane stuff. Talking to people honestly, insisting on conservation, rewarding innovation, punishing waste. (I actually live in a small, isolated desert town with a community operated water system and a moratorium on new building caused by an unremedial limit on suppy so I know about these things).

I'm sure that won't be enough. Harder measures would be needed. Some sort of birth control. What sort? That would depend on how absolute my power was and, what people proposed as they realized the depth of the problem.

In a scarcity situation what you would be trying to avoid at all costs would be all out war. A repetition of WWII with modern weapons would destroy humanity. Of almost equal importance would be a sudden collapse. You wouldn't want people to wake up one morning to find that the water supply system had collapsed completely and whole sections of the population had no water at all...unless you were militarily ready to enforce mass death by drought.