Georgia, though, could launch another legal attack. Federal land — not controlled by Tennessee — lies between Georgia and the river. The Tennessee Valley Authority, a federal agency that manages the river, owns the half-mile slice of largely untrammeled property separating Dade County, Ga., from the river.

TVA policy allows adjacent landowners to cross its property to reach the Tennessee River. Georgia, conceivably, could bypass a spat with the state by dealing directly with the federal government.

"We have a strong argument to the entire disputed area, but we have a stronger argument — the strongest — for the areas that are federal land," said Atlanta attorney Brad Carver, who has been advising Georgia legislators on possible legal tactics. "The state is going to have a lot of different strategies to look at."

State lines don't always match water drainage basins. Six percent of the Tennessee River's drainage basin above Nickajack Reservoir is in Georgia, draining mostly through three rivers. The river's flow at Nickajack is 24 billion gallons a day....

"It's not like we're trying to take something. We just want it back. And we don't even want half as much back as we put in."
—- Ben Brandon, CEO of Dade County in northeast Georgia

"The most pressing need is drinking water, as Basra residents depend on bottled mineral water because they do not drink tap water - first because of contamination and second because of its high salinity," al-Tamimi told IRIN.

"This is a catastrophe that could lead to a huge problem as we are entering summer and, of course, if it continues like this, it will lead to waterborne diseases including diarrhoea," he said.

Their drinking water comes straight from the lake and the fisherman describes their little precautionary ritual before they drink it. The family collects the water, they then let it settle and drink it.

This is the same water in which they freely defecate, the same water in which they wash and the same shrinking body of water upon which they depend for livelihood. The population pressure which he has helped to create -- with 11 family members -- is making the pollution problem worse and helping to drive down the fish stocks on which they all rely. The spectre of climate change is starting to make itself felt in the low water levels and the precariousness of life is starkly apparent -- even the houses' anchor lines are shaken as they get snagged in the propellers of passing boats.

At present, a race for the world's resources is underway that resembles the Great Game that was played in the decades leading up to the First World War. Now, as then, the most coveted prize is oil and the risk is that as the contest heats up it will not always be peaceful. But this is no simple rerun of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Today, there are powerful new players and it is not only oil that is at stake...

The struggle is no longer focused mainly on central Asian oil. It stretches from the Persian Gulf to Africa, Latin America, even the polar caps, and it is also a struggle for water and depleting supplies of vital minerals. Above all, global warming is increasing the scarcity of natural resources. The Great Game that is afoot today is more intractable and more dangerous than the last.