Water war

I/ Identify and explain the multifaceted nature of  international disputes over water

1. Rivers

The Euphrates:

The Euphrates is a 2,780  km long Asian river.  Together with the  Tiger, he formed Mesopotamia,one of the cradles of civilization, in his lower part.  Its  flowis particularly irregular, as more than half of its flow flows from March to May and the flow can fall to 300 m3/s againstan average flow of 830 m3/s  (at the entrance to  SyrieSyria). During floods, it can reach 5,200 m3/s,which can cause severe flooding. From one year to the next, the volume of water varies greatly from 15  km3  during the 1958-1962 drought to 58  km3  in 1969.

Euphrates watershed

The Tiger:

The Tigris River is a 1,900  kmlong river  in Mesopotamia.  This river originates in Turkey as the other great river of the region, theEuphrates. It originates in the  Taurus  (Armenianhigh plateau,  Turkey)and then travels through  Syria  andIraq from north to south via  Mosul  and  Baghdad. Then it joins theEuphrates  to form a common estuary,  the  Chatt-el-Arab,200  kmlong, which flows into the Persian Gulf..

Tigris watershed

1. History

Water, a vital resource for humanity, ignores political boundaries and varies in abundance in time and space. The demands for its use are multiple and conflicting and have only increased over the past 100 years. While the world's population has tripled, the demand for water has increased seven-fold.

In 1993, while water-rich countries had 10,000m3  per capita per year, Iraq had 2110 m3  per capita per year, Turkey 1700 and Syria 1420. The forecast for 2020 gives less advantageous figures: 950 m3  for Iraq, 980 for Turkey and 780 for Syria versus 8000 for water-rich countries. Already, the Turkish government is constantly sounding alarm bells about water problems.

Water management is at the heart of the Tigris and Euphrates basin problem shared between Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran

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History of conflict

The Euphrates and the Tigris are both native to Turkey and flow into the Shatt Al-Arab Basin in southern Iraq. As the Euphrates flows through Syria and Iraq, the Tigris flows from Turkey to Iraq. Turkey contributes 90% to the Euphrates, while Syria contributes 10% to the flow of water.  As for the Tigris, Turkey, Iraq and Iran contribute 40%, 51% and 9% respectively. Although Iran is also contributing to the Tigris flow, researchers do not consider the country to be a major co-river in the Euphrates-Tiger basin.

In the 1960s, after thousands of years of water-sharing in the Euphrates-Tigris basin, disputes began to erupt between the co-coastal states over the flow of water to their territory. Between the 1960s and 1990s, there were several cases of close cooperation, but other events brought countries to the brink of war. Although cooperation between the co-economies resumed in the 2000s, several factors put an end to this cooperation. The UN's prediction that the flow of the Euphrates and the Tigris could decrease by 30% and 60% respectively by the end of the century shows that the amount of water flowing through Syria and Iraq is likely to become even scarcer. An agreement to effectively manage the waters of the Euphrates Tiger is therefore crucial for stability in the region.

Relationsbetween the three main co-coastal states were punctuated by very cooperative and highly conflicting events. Until 1960, as the water used by the co-rivers was low, relations between the three countries were considered "harmonious".  . However, in the early 1960s, several factors caused tensions between states and thus hindered cooperation in the water management of the Euphrates-Tigris basin.

In addition to these environmental aspects, other non-water-related factors have played a major role. First, while the Cold War has exacerbated tensions on the water, Turkey has joined NATO while Syria and Iraq have maintained close ties with the USSR. Secondly, the issue with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) was a major element of discord between the two countries until the 2000s.  Finally, the territorial dispute over Hatay province was a major source of tension between the countries until 2005.Tensions took the dispute to another level in the 1980s and 1990s, when Turkey began to use water as an instrument to put pressure on other co-coastal states and linked it to non-water-related issues, for example, in 1987, Turkey and Syria negotiated an agreement, in which Turkey pledged to release 500 m3 of water per second in Syria, while Turkey pledged to end its support for the PKK(Kurdistan Workers' Party))