Water Protests Roil Mideast, Alarm Region's Governments

When the civil war erupted in Syria a decade ago, some Middle East observers and climate scientists argued drought was one of the significant drivers of the conflict.

Drought in the years preceding the war caused an agricultural collapse in parts of eastern and northern Syria, forcing rural families to migrate to cities in ever larger numbers and it intensified the competition over already scarce resources and jobs.  Water shortages may become a trigger in other countries in the region for unrest and rebellion, fear analysts and diplomats, and they point to water feuds between neighboring states and protests over water shortages that have erupted this year in a swathe of the Mideast and North Africa as harbingers of more prolonged political and social trouble ahead. Algeria, Iran, Iraq, Sudan and Yemen have all seen drought-related frustrations boiling over with government mismanagement and corruption blamed by locals for water shortages as much as climate change.