Aquifer
A type of rock that can store water or transfer it to another place.

Capital-Intensive
An industry that invests more in machines and technology than in workers.

Crude Oil
Oil before it has been refined.

Desalination
Removing salt from seawater.

Diversify
To increase the variety.

Embargo
An action that bans trade.

Fundamentalist
A religious movement or point of view that sticks to original principles, and often does not tolerate more modern interpretations.

LEDC
Stands for Less Economically Developed Country.

Groundwater
The water that flows through soil and rocks. It is formed as water soaks into the soil, and it can be stored there.

Mesopotamia
Starting 7,000 years ago, Mesopotamia is considered to be the world’s first civilisation. The word literally means, ‘between two rivers’, marking an area between the rivers Tigris and Euphrates.

MEDC
Stands for More Economically Developed Country.

Monsoon
An Arabic word that means ‘season’. It refers to the winds that blow across South Asia from the south-west in the summer and from the north-east in the winter, bringing lots of rain with them.

Nomadic
People who move from place to place to find work, food, or water and fresh grass for their animals.

Quota
A restriction in the quantity of a particular good or service that a country is allowed to sell/trade.

Revenue
Profit made from a business.

Sanctions
Penalties that forcefully encourage people or countries to act in a certain way.

Souk
A market, or part of a market, in an Arab city.

Sunni
A branch of Islam.

Sustainable
“Development which meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”. The Bruntland Commission’s definition.

Transnational company
TNC for short and also known as a ‘multinational corporation’, this is a company that owns and operates manufacturing or service businesses in more than one country.