Water another source of Mideast tension

(CNN) -- It's a rare and life-giving source of water in a parched land. But to get to Israel's Sea of Galilee, water has to flow through a tough and thirsty neighborhood -- from Lebanon, Syria and Jordan, then through the Golan Heights.

"There really isn't enough water to go around, so there's a high risk of conflict in these countries over who will control these crucial sources of water," says Michael Klare, professor of Peace and World Security Studies at Hampshire College.

For Israel and the Palestinians, most water comes from under contested land, drawn from aquifers beneath the West Bank, Gaza and Israel itself. It's water both sides need to survive.

RESOURCES Water fight intensifies Mideast conflict: an interview with Sandra Postel of the Global Water Policy Project  • Middle East backgrounder

"Neither one can live without the water," says Peter Koenig, water resources management specialist for the World Bank.

But a growing population is pumping water out faster than nature can replace it.

"There's not enough water to grow all the food that the region needs to grow for itself, and provide enough drinking water and water for industry," says Sandra Postel, director of the Global Water Policy Project in Amherst, Massachusetts.

Flow control

In the West Bank, Israeli authorities control who gets to sink wells and pump water.

"About 80 percent of the water resources right now are in the West Bank," Koenig says. "And only about 20 percent of those are currently used by the Palestinian Authority."

Experts estimate Israeli settlers in the occupied territories use three to five times as much water per capita as their Palestinian neighbors.

"Water is an undercurrent to tensions between Israelis and Palestinians," Postel says.

"Palestinians will point across the road to an Israeli settlement where they see a swimming pool being filled and they point to their own community where there's barely any water at all -- and they'll express a great deal of anger about it," Klare says.

People who study water issues say there's some cause for hope about the situation.

They say even countries with bitter histories -- India and Pakistan, for example, and since 1994 Jordan and Israel -- have managed to stick to water-sharing agreements, even when fighting over everything else.