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South Kingstown
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News summaries: (sources are listed for you to read the entire article)
"International Study on Water in Mideast Leads to a Warning," March 3, 1999
A new comprehensive international report on water supply is being touted by its writers as the first such study ever. The first major study of long-term outlook for water supplies between the eastern border of Jordan and Israel’s Mediterranean Coast stated that that even with strict management "the area's inhabitants will almost assuredly live under conditions of significant water stress in the near future." Ancient aquifers are being drained rapidly for use while rainwater goes unused and rivers are diverted for agricultural use.
While the study itself is significant, at least as symbolic is the fact that this is the first such study performed as a collaboration between Israeli, Palestinian and Jordanian experts, all of whom encouraged their governments to work together on such products as recycling waste water, efficient irrigation and the use of brackish water for agriculture. Agriculture is a major consumer of water in the region, and is exceptionally wasteful: in Israel, agriculture accounts for 3 percent of the gross domestic product and 57 percent of water consumption; in Jordan agricultural sector contributes 6 percent of the GDP, but uses 72 percent of the water; while in the less developed West Bank and Gaza Strip, agriculture absorbs about 64 percent, yet accounts for fully a third of the local economy. There is also a large disparity in overall water use between the three participants: Israel’s per capita consumption is 344 cubic meters, the West Bank and Gaza Strip 93 cubic meters, and Jordan’s 244 cubic meters. It should be noted that Jordan is poorer than the West Bank yet uses over twice as much water per capita.
Israeli Foreign Minister Ariel Sharon has been promoting plans for Mediterranean desalting plants that could supply Gaza and Israeli coastal communities. But the study noted that desalting sea water was extremely expensive -- $1 or more for a cubic meter of potable water -- and would not usually be considered feasible in a region without cheap and abundant fuel supplies. (such as the West Bank/Gaza and Jordan, however this is often standard practice in the richer, oil-producing Middle Eastern States).
--New York Times, http://www10.nytimes.com/library/world/mideast/030399mideast-water.html
"Water at Heart of Turkey’s Policies on Kurds and Mideast Neighbors," February 28, 1999
The recent capture of Kurdish guerrilla leader Abdullah Ocalan has focused new attention on the war he has waged against the Turkish army for 14 years. Until last October, he lived in hiding in Syria, and the Syrian government provided him with money, arms, and political cover. Ocalan was also aided by Iraq, who allowed him to build military bases along the Iraq-Turkey border. While neither governments are strong advocates for Kurdish autonomy (both fiercely suppress their own Kurdish populations), but they both harbor a great deal of resentment for Turkey’s control over the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Their support of Ocalan is a way of applying pressure on Turkey to relinquish some of their hold on the headwaters.
Turkey is currently spending $32 billion for the massive Southeast Anatolia Project, a series of 22 dams and 19 hydroelectric plants through which Turkey controls the Tigris and Euphrates. However, the Kurdish region straddles the two rivers and encompasses much of the region in which the government is at work on the Southeast Anatolia Project, so Turkey is especially unwilling to give up any control over the area for fear of losing political and geographic power with the rivers. Once the project is completed, it is expected to increase the amount of irrigated land in Turkey by 40 percent, and improve the standard of living of the 6 million poorest Turkish residents, mostly Kurds. This in turn could undercut the appeal of revolutionary separatism, and cause Iraq and Syria to lose their base of support in southern Turkey.
Iraq and Syria also resent Turkey for their newfound alliance with the Israeli government. The partnership began when Yitzhak Rabin headed up the Israeli government and Turkey was led by current President Suleyman Demirel. The two were both water engineers by trade, and as Rabin once said, "if we solve every other problem in the Middle East but do not satisfactorily resolve the water problem, our region will explode." Intensive studies are now under way to see whether tankers, pipelines or other means can be used to send Turkey's water to its new Israeli friends.
--New York Times, http://search.nytimes.com/search/daily/bin/fastweb?getdoc+site+site+58093+0+wAAA+Tigris-Euphrates
Other sites:
Sustaining Water, Easing Scarcity: A Second Update http://www.populationaction.org/why_pop/water/water97.pdf
Good sections on the Tigris-Euphrates and Nile River Basin, also a great deal of background information. Requires the Adobe Acrobat Reader, which you can download for free from www.adobe.com
Why Population Growth Matters to Freshwater Availability http://www.populationaction.org/why_pop/waterfs.html
A fact sheet on worldwide water scarcity.
As always, the United Nations does maintain a very comprehensive site at www.un.org. I suggest that you browse under "Economic and Social Development," as well as checking out their UN Documents.
