Southwest Asia Oil & Water

Oil and Water

North Africa and
Southwest Asia

Instructions
Topic: Middle East Economy.

Directions: Draw a 4 square in your journal and write the questions, JUST LIKE MINE!
As you follow along with the slides you will record your answers for the questions in your 4 squares.
This will count as a daily grade! 25pts each square!

3. OIL- where
are the largest
reserves
located?

2. What is
desalination?

4. What is OPEC?

1. How does
access to
water create
conflict?

Oil and water
presentation

(* Hint… MOST answers are highlighted!!)

(Hydropolitics)

Poll

Have you completed your 4 square on your notebook paper?

• YES

• NO :(

• WORKING ON IT

• I DON'T HAVE A PENCIL :(

Water

• Water is a natural resource that is distributed

unevenly in the Middle East. Water scarcity is when
water is not available or distributed evenly.

• Some countries, like Turkey and Iraq, have major

rivers that provide enough
drinking water for farming
communities.

• These two countries share

the Tigris and Euphrates
river systems.

• Israel, Syria, and Jordan

share the Jordan River.

Multiple Select

Which two countries share the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers?

• Turkey

• Syria

• Jordan

• Iraq

• Others, like Saudi Arabia, have

almost no water. Saudi Arabia
relies on desalination.

• They are mostly made up of desert.
• Others, like Iran, have areas with

access to rivers and areas that are
made up of deserts.

• Because water is in short supply in

so many parts of Southwest Asia,
irrigation has been necessary for
those who want to farm and raise
animals for market.

Word Cloud

What does desalination mean in 2 words or less?

Irrigation methods

• Many types of irrigation can be found in SW Asia as

farmers struggle to bring water to their fields from local
rivers and underground aquifers (layers of
underground rock where water runoff from rains and
streams is trapped.)

• Some farmers use water from wells that tap into fossil

water (water that has been underground for centuries).

• Rains and streams do not

replace this water, and
once it is used, is gone
forever.

Open Ended

Please explain the difference between fossil water and aquifers, in your own words! You may include a picture.

Fossil Water

Fossil Water

• Farmers in very rural areas still use methods

used by their ancestors to irrigate their fields,
including water wheels, irrigation ditches and
canals, as well as animal power to lift water
from underground wells.

• Farmers in countries with more technology use

modern irrigation techniques.

• Israel and Saudi Arabia have developed

systems of drip irrigation using computers that
measure out how much water each plant
receives.

Irrigation methods

• There has also been a lot of work done to learn

how to take water from the ocean and
desalinate it to use for drinking and irrigation.

• Desalination(the process of removing salt and

other chemicals from seawater) is very
expensive and requires complex technology.

Irrigation methods

Draw

SKETCH! Draw ONE form of irrigation you learned about.

Open Ended

TELL DESCRIBE in your words the method of irrigation you just drew on the previous slide.

Water Problems

• Pollution
• Overuse of rivers and streams
• Contamination from fertilizers and pesticides
• Build up of salt in soil from chemicals = ruined soil

• Access to water is also a source of conflict, especially

among countries that share a river system.

• Dams built along a river to create lakes for irrigation

and the production of hydroelectric power (electricity
produced from the energy of running water) one
country can reduce the amount of water available
to other countries located further downstream
(= conflict).

Conflict

Open Ended

Please EXPLAIN how hydroelectric power can create conflict for these countries?

Oil in the Middle East
• Two of the most important natural resources found in North

Africa and Southwest Asia are natural gas and oil.

• Bring wealth into the region because they are needed for

much of the world’s economy.

• ½ world’s oil
• Has made some

countries extremely
rich and gave them
a lot of control over
the global economy.

• The majority of the

oil is located around
the Persian Gulf!

Open Ended

Based on the map of the previous page, which country generates the MOST oil?

Who has the oil?
● Greatest oil reserves: Saudi

Arabia, Iraq, Iran, Kuwait,
Libya, Algeria

● Some other countries have

smaller reserves, especially
those found around the
Persian Gulf

● Tremendous growth in

national wealth and an
improved standard of living in
the past fifty years.

● Those countries without oil reserves have a much harder time

improving living conditions for their populations.

● This difference in wealth in some of the Middle East has led to

conflicts among the nations = conflict.

Open Ended

BASED on the chart on the previous slide, which country is the GREATEST consumer of refined oil?

• In the 1960s, several of these SW Asian countries joined with

other oil-rich countries around the world to create the

Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in
order to have more control over the price of oil on the world
market.

• OPEC has called for an embargo, or a slow-down or temporary

halt, to oil supplies at different times in the past to get political
and economic agreements from the other countries in the world.

• While some countries in the

Middle East have grown very
rich due to their oil production,
others have struggled to help
their populations make a
decent
living.

OPEC

Open Ended

What does OPEC stand for?

Word Cloud

WRITE 1-2 WORDS that stood out the MOST to you for this entire presentation.

Draw

SKETCH ONE key IDEA OR FACT you learned from this presentation.