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(U) Letter to the Editor : Water, Water Everywhere, Nor Any Drop to
Drink...*
FROM: the editor
Unknown
Run Date: 03/23/2006
(U//FOUO) Here are reader comments on yesterday's article A Growing Security Challenge:
Competition for Water
Comment:
(U//FOUO) When I was TDY to Jordan in 1999, I had a fascinating conversation with some lowranking Jordanian Army officers. They described how Israel and Syria were both involved in
fresh-water supply projects to Jordan, but the Israeli water was unfit for use. "Who is the true
friend of Jordan?" they asked, rhetorically.
(U) My taxi driver spoke enough English to do the job (and I spoke enough Arabic to be polite),
but we were unable to find a way to describe water that falls from the sky.
(U) A resident American recalled that there had been rain about six months before.
(U) Many hotels I've stayed in (US and Europe) will defer laundry of bath linens until the guest
requests it, to save water and energy. (My home bath towel gets washed weekly, which is fine
with me, for just the same reasons.) However, my hotel in Amman washed them every day,
because that was their concept of high-class service, despite the national scarcity of water.
What I saw as waste was a symbol of modernity to them.
--
(U) Comment:
(U) This is an excellent article. I am a recent hire from industry where I worked as a
Hydrogeologist/Project Manager for an environmental consulting firm, so water issues are very
familiar to me. It is no exaggeration to say it's just a matter of time until wars erupt because of
competition for the resource... in fact, even the U.S. has severe water issues with multiple states
in the West continuously entangled in litigation over water rights.
(U//FOUO) I think it's critical to have articles on topics that the NSA traditionally does not
address (at least primarily), such as water resource issues, and the Agency should expand its
efforts in monitoring resource issues.
--
*(U) Note: Many will recognize this as a line from The Rime of the Ancient Mariner , by Samuel
Taylor Coleridge.
"(U//FOUO) SIDtoday articles may not be republished or reposted outside NSANet
without the consent of S0121 (DL sid comms)."
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DERIVED FROM: NSA/CSSM 1-52, DATED 08 JAN 2007 DECLASSIFY ON: 20320108