Waterblogged

Turkey and Syria get first dibs on the Euphrates

The New York Times recently published an article and an accompanying slideshow on the two-year drought–and unconscionable water-hogging by neighboring Turkey and Syria–that is decimating the country and drying up the  main artery of its life blood, the Euphrates River*. The article notes also that the current crisis is partially due to Iraq’s misuse of water over recent decades.

By the way, I found the link to the Times’s story at what looks to me to be a very valuable news aggregator, GlobalPost. It features quick hits on and links to stories about planet-wide goings-on. Actually there’s something posted about the Moon today, so we may be talking solar system-wide coverage. My quick description does not do justice to its robust content. Check it out.

This from the Times’ slideshow:

Strangled by the water policies of its neighbors, Turkey and Syria, a two-year drought and years of misuse by Iraq and its farmers, the Euphrates River is significantly smaller than it was just a few years ago, and some officials worry that it could soon be half of what it is now.

* Caveat: I often link to Wikipedia to offer background information. I don’t think that the site generally is even close to infallible, but I think we’re safe when it comes to geography, and to some extent, history.