Planting The Seeds Of The Big One
Posted by markfromireland on August 31, 2006 – 6:02 pmBefore going further I suggest that you read The U.S. Library of Congress’ entry for Iraq’s water resources which can be found here.
“The increasing importance of water in geopolitical affairs is escalating the potential for conflict over water resources among nations. It is estimated that there are presently at least ten places in the world where war could erupt over dwindling water resources. Unfortunately the majority of these sites are in the vulnerable Middle East. The Euphrates and Tigris rivers are shared among different countries and with the depletion of water in the Middle East more conflicts have arisen. Projects are being developed to exploit the water resources in the area (Topkaya 1998). Projects like Guneydogu Anadolu Projesi (GAP), also referred to as the Southeast Anatolia Development Project, will create irrigation and hydropower and will use a lot of water (Lowi 1995). The total amount of water that is planned to be used by Turkey, Syria and Iraq exceeds the total flow capacity of the rivers (Topkaya 1998)” - Fahey 2001. [Emphasis mine - mfi]
There’s an article in Karbala news [Arabic Language] about Turkey’s dam construction projects. Don’t let the fact that it’s so short deceive you. This story is seriously bad news. The article starts by quoting an official source at the Ministry of Water Resources as saying that the project of building a dam on the Tigris would reduce the flow to Iraq from 20.93 billion cubic meters to 7.9 billion cubic meters.
“The source added in a press statement that such a shortfall in yield from the river has serious repercussions on Iraq in the areas of agriculture, drinking and power generation, industry and the revival of the marshes and the environment.”
The article concludes that it is noteworthy that the Turkish government has engaged in damming the “Euphrates and Tigris rivers without taking into account Iraq’s right to these rivers” and that “Great Turkey” is doing everything in it’s power to add to the suffering of the Iraqi people, that it is not enough that Iraqis be killed by “terrorism’s knife” but that now they must “die from thirst as well.”
One of my first instructors used to regularly start his lectures on sources of conflict in the Middle East by saying that “Once they start fighting about water they won’t stop until one side or the other is wiped out.” If you’re new to the topic of water as the flaspoint for war in the Middle two well written and fairly comprehensive resources are:
markfromireland
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August 31st, 2006 at 9:11 pm
Indeed, water is the reason why Israel will *never* tolerate a fully independent Palestinian state on the West Bank rather than the current South African style Bantu-stan situation. The West Bank lies over the aquifer that provides water for Tel Aviv and half of the Israeli population and economy. The Palestinians will get the West Bank as a fully independent state only by… well, they won’t. Israel simply could not survive if a Palestinian state on the West Bank overdrew that aquifer or contaminated it with poor practices.
Same deal with the Golan Heights. Take a look at a satellite photo. Israel has put farms on either side of the Jordan River there. Letting Syria take the Golan Heights back would result in Syria also taking that water back.
In the end, that is why Israel had no problem with giving back the Sinai Peninsula in the “land for peace” deal with Egypt, but has resisted every entreaty to negotiate the status of the Golan and West Bank. It’s all about water. Until you realize that, nothing makes sense in the Middle East. (Or in the American West, for that matter, where similar water wars have been fought… e.g., the City of Los Angeles turned the Owens Valley into a desert by stealing all their water, but not without lots of things going “boom!” in the night for years as farmers and ranchers who had their livelihoods destroyed took their revenge).
-BT
May 16th, 2008 at 7:19 pm
[…] For a short introduction (with links to sources) to the centrality of water to the Iraki and Middle Eastern situation see: Gorilla’s Guides » Blog Archive » 31st August 2006, 06:02 pm » Planting The Seeds Of The Big On…. […]