Turkish - Syrian - Iraqi dispute over water
Fertile Crescent Region, Analysis, 12/8/1997

In January 1990, Turkey stopped the water of the Euphrates river from flowing to Syria and Iraq in order to fill the reservoir of the Ataturk Dam. It was the first time Damascus and Baghdad felt the bitterness of asking a foreign country for water. The Turkish side explained that stopping the water flow came as a result of security and not political reasons. But the Turkish explanation sparked tension between Turkey on one hand and Syria and Iraq on the other hand over water.

The two rivers start in Turkey and pass through the Syrian and Iraqi borders, thus they change from being national rivers into international rivers. The beginning of the crisis came in 1957 when Baghdad received a Turkish memorandum in which Ankara informed Baghdad of its intention to set up the Dam of Kiban at the meeting point of the Euphrates and the Murad rivers. The memo said that the lake will hold about 9.4 billion square meters of water. Later, it was found out that the lake holds 30.5 billion square meters of water.

The following decades witnessed escalation in the dispute over the fair division of the water of the Digla and the Euphrates rivers. Matters worsened when Turkey announced the Al Ghab project as Syria and Iraq found that this project would jeopardize irrigation and power generation projects in the two countries.

The Al Ghab project, doubtless, is the main cause of the crisis, as it aims to irrigate 1.7 million hectares of lands in the plains of Harats in Turkey and it also aims to generate about 26 billion kilowatts/hour per year.

The studies for the Ghab project date back to the seventies. The project is expected to cost $34 billion by the time it is over in the year 2005. Two huge dams were already implemented which are the Kirakaia and the Dam of Ataturk finished in 1994. The Ataturk dam had two large tunnels.

In addition to the Al Ghab project, Turkey spoke of an ambitious project which would escalate the tension to the maximum point as it would affect the flow of water to Syria and Iraq. In 1987, Turkey declared its intention to extend a pipeline from Turkey to the Middle East region in order to provide the Arab countries and Israel with water.

The project, called the Peace Pipeline, aims to offer water to other countries. Under the plan Turkey would keep about 13 million square meters of water for its irrigation and power generation purposes while it pumps 16 million square meters to the Middle East region. Economic and feasibility studies run by one of the American companies showed that Turkey will try to extend a pipeline which is 2,700 kilometers long that will be used for pumping the water at about 3.3 million square meters a day. This pipeline will go into two branches; the first will pass through Amman, then through some of the Syrian cities to reach some of the Saudi cities. The other branch will be about 400 kilometer long and will pass through Saudi Arabia and Kuwait till it reaches the United Arab Emirates to pump about 250 million square meters of water a day.

The Al Ghab and Peace Pipeline projects will decrease the water quotas of Syria and Iraq greatly and the water available for the two countries will not be enough for irrigation and power generation projects. It is expected that Iraq would not get more than 25% of the total flow of water of the Euphrates. Experts expect that Syria will suffer from draught in 20 years' time and that Iraq will suffer from the same problem in ten years' time.

Turkey, on the other hand, believes that there are no international laws that would force it to let other countries share the water that passes through those countries. It differentiates between international waterways and the waterways that pass through other countries. The Turkish officials are not willing to divide the water of the Digla and the Euphrates rivers before the completion of the projects in the southeast of Anatol.

The Syrians and the Iraqis are united in their request for a fair distribution of water, Baghdad asks for discussing the project of the Dam of Atatork in order to increase the water it receives. Iraq did not take part in the Syrian-Turkish agreement signed in 1987 which determined the quantity of water passing through the Turkish-Syrian borders at 500 meters a second. Iraq wants this quantity to increase to more than 700 meters a second.

This dispute takes wider dimensions on the political level today due to improving Turkish - Israeli relations which complicates the problem and gives this crisis a strategic dimension. The improved Syrian-Iraqi relations in part are a response to these Israeli-Turkish ties.

Previous Stories:
  Iraq calls on Turkey to join water talks   (10/23/1997)
  Syria to divert Euphrates   (10/2/1997)
  Recent study sees military action on Syrian-Turkish water issue impossible   (9/6/1997)

Please add a link on your webiste pointing to ArabicNews.com and bookmark ArabicNews.com & subscribe to our daily email news bulletin.

Search