Water resources, stress of the environment, conservation issues. Since the book of Julian Rzoska "Euphrates and Tigris Mesopotamian Ecology and Destiny" in , no book or major reference has been published that includes between its cover the facts and information that the present book will present.
Therefore, the importance of the present book falls in stating the present status of the environment of the two rivers and the comparison of their environment between now and that of 37 years ago as given by J. Rzoska The recent studies showed that there are a large number of natural and political events that happened within the last three decades in the area of the Tigris-Euphrates river system that for sure have done a great change to the environment of the two rivers and consequently changing the biological and non-biological resources of the two rivers.
This book will be a reference book to both Academic and students across the Middle East in different disciplines of knowledge to use in their researches on Tigris-Euphrates river system.
Author : J. All rivers have two main functions, quite different from lakes; they transport water and eroded material sometimes over large distances. The astute Greeks, who penetrated here in the 4th century B. Another name coined in antiquity was 'Fertile Crescent', stretching from Egypt to present day Iraq; Herodotus marvelled at the fertility of the soils, the abundance of water and the magnificent cities of Mesopotamia.
When the drought began in , many Syrian farmers turned to groundwater reserves for irrigation. Many found that the wells had dried up or become too saline to use safely. For many farmers, who were already facing reduced crop yields, rising fuel prices placed further strain on their farm operations. By the time of the Arab Spring, in , the drought had reportedly led to the displacement of 1. Most of these people moved from rural to urban areas that were already overwhelmed by an influx of Iraqi and Palestinian refugees.
These stresses, along with poor policy choices by the government, contributed to the protests that eventually metastasised into the current regional violence. The Syrian and Iraqi states have been undermined by the turmoil that has swept the region and it is possible that these entities will not survive the conflict.
Since , Syria has been split into four broad zones controlled by the government, opposition militias, Kurdish forces and the Islamic State IS.
Iraq is similarly split between Sunni and Shia groups, the government and IS. Both states could fragment, perhaps along ethnic or religious lines. If this fragmentation occurs, it is likely that regional co-operation will prove even more challenging to initiate and sustain. Heightened water insecurity arguably played a role in provoking the current unrest in the region.
While most of this insecurity was arguably caused by poor domestic water management policies in Syria and Iraq, Turkey has also been blamed.
Addressing disputes that arise from poor regional water allocation policies will be necessary if a long-term solution to regional turbulence is to be successful. Given the widespread conflict, poor governance and uncertain political future of the region, however, it is unlikely that co-operation between the riparians of the Tigris-Euphrates Basin will be forthcoming in the near future.
Syria and Iraq, as the two lower riparians, are heavily reliant on Turkish goodwill as almost all of their surface water supply is derived from the Tigris or Euphrates rivers. Turkish officials, however, maintain that neither watercourse is an international river until it crosses the border into Syria and Iraq. Turkey's GAP project, which will eventually include 22 dams and 19 hydroelectric plants in the upper Tigris-Euphrates basin, gives Turkey tremendous ability to control both rivers, and provides significant political and economic influence over Syria and Iraq.
The countries have failed to reach a water-sharing agreement, and Turkish and Syrian stockpiling to fill reservoirs nearly led to military conflicts with Iraq in and Recent drought-induced low river flows have led to accusations that Turkey is holding back more than its fair share of water.
This paper details the nature of water shortages in the Tigris and Euphrates basin, discusses relationships between upstream-downstream riparian states, analyzes whether international water laws are sufficiently developed to influence Turkey, Syria, and Iraq toward a long-term solution, and explains the importance of a U. Lastly, this paper describes steps Iraq must take to improve its water security, with or without a water-sharing agreement with Turkey and Syria.
Some discussion of these people are included in this book, especially in the chapter "A Peculiar People. Despite worsening water availability and equity in the Tigris-Euphrates river basin, a military conflict over water is unlikely while Iraq and Syria remain militarily, politically, and economically weaker than Turkey. As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public.
We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant. Skip to content. The first 75 years of the twentieth century witnessed con- According to the GAP Master Plan, by the year , the certed efforts, especially in the industrialised world, to GAP project is expected to generate annually 27 billion kWh build up of physical structures, namely, dams and irrigation of hydroelectric energy and irrigate 1.
The accelerated effort of building thousands of accounting for nearly one fifth of the irrigable land of Turkey. The hydraulic mission, which was first dams and 19 hydropower plants and extensive irrigation and and most fully implemented in the industrialised countries, drainage networks.
The gov- ernment set a number of objectives to be followed in the From the s until the late s, transboundary water context of the Euphrates Valley Project: irrigating an area issues moved into the realm of high politics, as non-water as wide as , ha; generation of electric energy issues became decisive factors that led to greater tensions and needed for urban use and industrial development and disputes.
Bilateral relations between Turkey and Syria had regulating the flow of Euphrates in order to prevent long been strained. Two principal sources of friction were seasonal flooding. Its vast total capacity is twice that of Tur It is filled by diverting water from the conducive to water cooperation in the early s, the grow- Tigris at the Samara Dam to protect Baghdad against ing exploitation of the Euphrates through the construction of the dangers of flooding. Moreover, with the Thartar the Ataturk Dam in Turkey led to fresh calls for cooperation.
Canal, Iraq has already been able to alleviate water As the issues raised by water development schemes along the shortages within the Euphrates basin by diverting the Tigris and Euphrates are so complex and far-reaching, the Tigris water where Iraq has a surplus into Lake three riparians had to find ways of structuring their discus- Thartar and then into the Euphrates when there is not sions.
To this end, Iraq took the initiative in the formation of a enough water to feed the dependent irrigation projects. The first meeting of the Joint Taking into consideration the constraints of water salin- Economic Commission between Turkey and Iraq in led ity in the Thartar Canal and the amount of water that to the establishment of the Joint Technical Committee JTC can be saved and transferred from the Tigris to the in , whose members included participants from all three Thartar Lake reservoir, it may be assumed that about riparians assigned to establish methods and procedures that 6 bcm of water could be transferred annually from the would lead to the definition of a reasonable and adequate Thartar reservoir to the Euphrates river.
Negotiations were suspended in Kibaroglu tives, which could be handled by official technical dele- A careful examination of the records of the negotia- gations.
The main theme of these rivers being only one factor in their complex web of relations technical negotiations was the impact of the construction and interactions. While Turkey related to both the subject and the object of the negotiations: suggested the establishment of a joint technical committee should the Euphrates and the Tigris to be considered a single to determine the water and irrigation needs of the ripar- system, or could the discussions be confined to the Euphrates ians, Iraq insisted on a guarantee of specific flows and a 9 water-sharing agreement.
While Turkey released certain Disputes over this province emerged in the s; when following a plebiscite held at the end of the French mandate, Hatay became part of flows during the construction and impounding of the Turkey, although this was disputed by Syria. See Kibaroglu and Keban Dam, no final allocation agreement was reached Kibaroglu The regional context in which water issues may or may not lead to inter-state conflict, and the role non-water issues played i.
Lorenz and Erickson J Environ Stud Sci Kut ? Iraq The JTC meetings, at which claims and counter-claims and Syria considered the Euphrates to be an international river concerning the use of the rivers and the nature of customary and insisted on an immediate sharing agreement under which international water law were voiced, did not make an effective its waters would be shared on the basis of the needs declared contribution to the settlement of the regional water dispute.
In this respect, water use patterns and the objective needs Kibaroglu The principles of equitable and and water management practices within the various countries reasonable utilisation and of the optimum use of water resources simply could not be debated during those negotiations.
In this way, while officials in the region. In , the Turkish-Syrian Protocol on interpreting the principles of international law concerning equi- Economic Co-operation was the first formal bilateral agree- table utilisation and its achievement, the riparians adopted op- ment reached on regional waters, its conclusion made possible posing and rigid positions, with Turkey insisting on its water by simultaneous negotiations on security matters and water.
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