Oil Buys Water

In all the Middle East, Iraq is the only land rich in both oil and water. Saudi Arabia, richer in oil, is water poor. Last week Saudi Arabia announced that its old rival, the Hashemite Kingdom of Iraq, has granted it permission to tap the Iraqi river Euphrates for drinking water. Under their $28 million plan, cleared during King Saud's state visit to Baghdad last May, the oil-rich Saudis will hire international contractors to draw some 35 million gallons daily at a point near the site of ancient Ur, purify it at the riverside plant, and pipe it some 450 miles across the gravel plains, the heat-parched desert and rocky ridges to the ancestral Saudi oasis that has mushroomed into the modern, air-conditioned, palace-crammed capital city of Riyadh (pop. 200,000).

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