Water is the most abundant substance on the planet. Shortages are manmade.
The Washington Post reports:
Fresh-water shortages and more droughts and floods will increase the likelihood that water will be used as a weapon between states or to further terrorist aims in key strategic areas, including the Middle East, South Asia and North Africa, a U.S. intelligence assessment released Thursday said.
Although “water-related state conflict” is unlikely in the next 10 years, the assessment said, continued shortages after that might begin to affect U.S. national security interests…
The assessment noted that 70 percent of all fresh-water supplies are now used for agriculture. “The downside,” the official said, is that many regions are “pulling water out of aquifers faster than it is being renewed, or out of fossil aquifers we don’t estimate will ever be renewed. When it is is gone, the agriculture . . . will also leave.”
Based on climate-change assumptions for the next 40 years, the assessment anticipated “more droughts, more extreme weather events” and floods, along with concerns that “states would not make the necessary infrastructure investments to deal with” the shifting climate, the official said…