Green light to finance Syrian - Jordanian al-Wahda dam
Syria-Regional, Politics, 4/6/1999

Well-informed sources in Damascus told the London-based al-Hayat daily that Arab and international establishments had given the "green light" to take part in financing the Syrian-Jordanian al-Wahda dam which will be installed on al-Yarmouk river.

In this respect the chairman of the water department in the Syrian Ministry of Irrigation, Abdul Aziz al-Masri, noted "positive indications" that Turkey will join to the water meetings between Syria and Iraq to negotiate over a just and reasonable division "for the waters of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers" between the three countries.

He said that waters may constitute bridges of peace and cooperation between Ankara and Damascus, al-Masri indicated that certain international agreements "avails resorting to arbitration by any side whose water problem cannot be settled" with a neighboring state.

He considered the arbitration an important issue in the hands of Syria and Iraq in the future if the water crisis cannot be solved with Turkey. Al-Masri was talking in the symposium under the title "Monitoring water resources: its importance and applications," which was concluded on Monday in Damascus in which Iraq and other Arab states took part.

The Syrian engineer talked about international waters and the intention of both Syria and Lebanon to establish a "joint dam" on the al-Kabeer river between the two states.

On water relations with Jordan, al-Masri, who takes part in the negotiations with the neighboring states, said that after renovating the feasibility study of al-Wahda dam whose project was suspended in 1987 due to Israel's pressure on the World Bank in order not to finance the project: "We await our Jordanian brothers to convene an international conference to have a financing for the dam. There is a green light by certain establishments to finance this dam."

However, well-informed sources in Damascus noted current contacts with the Kuwaiti Fund for Social and Economic Development and the Abu Dhabi Fund for Development to take part in the financing process and that World Bank experts showed "readiness to finance the dam whose costs are estimated at US $300 million."

Concerning the issue of water-sharing with Turkey, al-Masri said, "The Euphrates river constitutes a basic water source for both Syria and Iraq," and the relations in this respect are "Turkish - Arab' relations.

He added, "When we say that there is a Turkish Syrian agreement it means an Arab-Turkish agreement." He continued that if international agreements are taken into account, "we find that it is our right to reach a fair division for the waters of the Euphrates." He indicated that there are attempts to "revive the tripartite Syrian, Turkish and Iraqi committee which did not meet since the end of 1992."

He added that among these attempt are the recent visit of Syrian Deputy Premier for Economic Affairs Salim Yassin in March to Ankara and reaching a security agreement between Syria and Ankara in October 1998.

Experts taking part in the symposium warned that Turkey is planning "through the project to develop al-Anadoul southeast (Ghab)" to reduce the share of Baghdad and Damascus of waters into 350,000 cubic meter per second.

Previous Stories:
  Japan asserts remarkable relations with Syria   (4/1/1999)
  Yassin's talks in Ankara did not tackle water issue   (3/25/1999)
  Syrian - Jordanian undeclared talks   (3/24/1999)
  Damascus calls on Turkish authorities to discuss water   (3/19/1999)

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