Water Wars - The Ripple Effect: The Fate of Freshwater in the Twenty-First Century - page 169

world's supply. Some 42 million Americans and Canadians rely on the Great Lakes Bas-
in water for their drinking supply; the waterways also play a crucial role in the region's
multibillion-dollar economy. In 1998 the Nova Group , a small Canadian consulting
firm, announced its intention to withdraw 158 million gallons of water a year from Lake
Superior and ship it by tanker to Asia. Permits were quickly issued by a local Ontario
government office, but when word of the deal spread, officials from the eight US states
bordering the lakes—already concerned about overuse, industrial pollution, and invas-
ive species—agreed that a stringent set of rules to protect lake waters was necessary.
In 2008, after nearly a decade of discussion, the eight states and the provinces of
Quebec and Ontario signed the Great Lakes Compact , to protect the lakes from large
water withdrawals. President Bush signed the bill into law. But some, such as Michigan
congressman Bart Stupak, opposed the bill because under the CHAPTER 11 provision
of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)—the 1994 trade agreement
among the United States, Canada, and Mexico—if a foreign company believes its ability
to conduct business is hindered by state law, it can sue for compensation, which could
set off an international water dispute. Thus far, cooler heads have prevailed, though the
potential for mischief is real.
Rivers, in particular, have the potential to be flashpoints because those upstream can
control flows to those downstream. The UN has warned that strife over shared
rivers —especially the Nile, Niger, Volta, and Zambezi—has the potential to erupt into
armed conflict. Others have pointed to tensions over the Tigris and the Euphrates as a
likely catalyst to violence. The rivers snake from the Turkish highlands down into Iraq
and Syria, then out to the Persian Gulf; each of these nations has laid claim to the rivers.
In 1998, Turkey and Syria nearly went to war over water. When the United States
invaded Iraq, much of Saddam's infrastructure was destroyed, making the regional de-
mand for water all the more acute. Matters have been vastly complicated by the rise of
the Kurds, whose ancient homeland straddles the headwaters of the Tigris and the Eu-
phrates, and who have emerged as a potent political force with US backing. A behind-
the-scenes struggle has been under way among Turkey, Kurdistan, and Iraq (and the US
forces there) over how to collect and distribute water from the Tigris-Euphrates systems
in coming decades.
Water has been considered a lethal strategic weapon in Korea. South Korea was
first gripped by a “water panic” in 1986, when the North built a massive dam on the
Han River, which runs through Seoul, the South Korean capital. To protect itself, the
South quickly countered by building the Peace Dam. Then, at two o'clock one morn-
ing in September 2009, North Korea opened the gates of a new dam on the Imjin River
without warning, unleashing a fifteen-foot-tall wall of water, which swept into South