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Middle East Water project of the institute has been provided by the Ploughshares Fund.
1.As the 21st century approaches, population pressures, irrigation demands, and growing resource needs
throughout the world are increasing the competition for freshwater. Nowhere is this more evident than in
5
the arid Middle East, where the scarcity of water has played a central role in defining the political
relationships of the region for thousands of years. In the Middle East, ideological, religious, and
geographical disputes go hand in hand with water-related tensions, and even those parts of the Middle East
10
with relatively extensive water resources, such as the Nile, Tigris, and Euphrates river valleys, are coming
under pressure. Competition for the limited water resources of the area is not new; people have been
fighting over, and with, water since ancient times. The problem has become especially urgent in recent
15
years, however, because of increasing demands for water, the limited options for improving overall supply
and management, and the intense political conflicts in the region. At the same time, the need to manage
jointly the shared water resources of the region may provide an unprecedented opportunity to move toward
20
an era of cooperation and peace.
2.
During the last two years, water conflicts have become sufficiently important to merit separate
explicit discussion in both the multilateral and bilateral Middle East peace talks now under way (see box 1
25
on page 271-272). Among the issues that must be resolved are the allocation and control of water in, and
the water rights to, the Jordan River and the three aquifers underlying the West Bank; a dispute between
Syria and Jordan over the construction and operation of a number of Syrian dams on the Yarmuk River; the
30
joint management of the Euphrates River between Turkey, Syria, and Iraq; and how to protect water
quality for all those dependent on these resources.
3.Conflicts among nations are caused by many factors, including religious differences, ideological
35 disputes, arguments over borders, and economic competition. Although it is difficult to disentangle the
many intertwined causes of conflict, competition over natural resources and disputes over environmental
factors are playing an increasing role in international relations.
40
4. These conflicts can take several forms, including the use of resources or the environment as
instruments of war or as goals of military conquest. History reveals that water has frequently provided a
justification for going to war: it has been an object of military conquest, a source of economic or
45
political strength, and both a tool and target of conflict. Also, on occasion, shortages of water have
constrained a country's economic or political options. No region has seen more water-related conflicts than
the Middle East, and some of these go back more than 5,000 years to the earliest civilizations in
Mesopotamia (see box 2 on pages 272-277)
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5.Water can become a source of strategic rivalry because of its scarcity, the extent to which the supply
is shared by more than one region or state, the relative power of the basin states, and the ease of access to
alternative freshwater sources. In the Middle East, water is scarce and widely shared by countries with
55
enormous economic, military, and political differences. Also, there are few economically or politically
acceptable alternative sources of supply. Thus, the temptation to use water for political or military purposes
60
has often proved irresistible. As water supplies and delivery systems become increasingly valuable in water-
scarce regions, their value as military targets increases.
5.
In modem times, the most pressing water conflicts in the Middle East have centered on control of
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the Jordan River basin, apportionment of the waters of the Euphrates and Nile Rivers, and management of
the groundwater aquifers of the occupied territories.
II The Water Resources
1.The water resources of the Middle East are unevenly distributed and used, and every major river in the
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region crosses international borders. The extent to which major rivers and groundwater basins are shared
by two or more nations makes the allocation and sharing of water a striking political problem and greatly
complicates the collection and dissemination of even the most basic data on water availability and use. In
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northeast Africa and the Middle East, more than percent of the total population relies upon river water that
flows across a political border. Two-thirds of all Arabic speaking people in the region depend upon water
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that originates in non-Arabic-speaking areas; two-thirds of Israel's freshwater comes from the occupied
territories or the Jordan River basin; and one-quarter of the Arab people live in areas entirely dependent on
nonrenewable groundwater or on expensive, desalinized sea-water.
85 2.The major shared surface water supplies in the Middle East are the Jordan, Tigres, Euphrates and Nile
Rivers. Although the watershed of the Litani River lies entirely within Lebanon, control and allocation of