Middle East Troubled Waters

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THE POLITICS OF MIDEAST WATER
Since civilization began, men and women have gathered at the well. For at the well is the source of life: water. And so it still is here at the edge of a field of squash and cucumbers near the town of Hebron in the West Bank.

UNDER THE WEST BANK
For decades, the deeply divided Middle East has slowly moved toward peace, but a final settlement keeps slipping from the grasp of negotiators. At the last minute, it seems, there's always something. These days, of all the problems plaguing the peace process, none goes deeper than the dispute over water.

COLLISION IN GAZA
One out of every 3 Gazans lives below the poverty line, and the birth rate is among the highest in the world. The numbers take on added weight when you realize that Gazans have less available water now than they did in 1947. And what water they do have is rapidly deteriorating, further drying out an already brittle tinder box.

NEGEV ANCIENT SPRING
In a tiny moist pocket of Israel's Negev Desert, a few miles from the Sinai Peninsula, there's a spring that bubbles out above a cliff and trickles down into a deep green pool in the valley of Zin.

OF JORDAN: A RIVER AND A NATION
Today the country which took the name of the Jordan uses little of the river's water. Israel and Syria take much of the river from dams and diversions upstream.