The Wars Rivers Will Cause #
May 5th, 2008 | In Worth Knowing
Sounding nearly as pessimistic as everyone else, The Economist assess which rivers around the world are most likely to lead to conflicts in the coming decades.
Already, the annual death toll from battles over water and grazing in the badlands of south Somalia, southern Ethiopia and northern Kenya is in the hundreds. Aid-workers say growing numbers of people and livestock, escalation from rifles to machineguns, erratic rainfall and especially the increased rates of evaporation expected in the future will put the toll into the tens of thousands. That still doesn’t add up to a real war between proper armies—but a thirsty planet is unlikely to be a stable and peaceful one.