Water Resources in the Middle East

The Euphrates River, the longest river in Southwestern Asia, starts in the mountains of Eastern Turkey and empties into the Persian Gulf. The Euphrates River is 1,700 miles long and drains an area of 171,000 sq. miles. Turkey provides 52% and 89% of all water entering the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers respectively (Figure 1). The Tigris River also has its springs in the mountains of Eastern Turkey, but the other main contribution of water to the river comes from northern Iraq (Topkaya 1998).

Figure 1. Contribution of the riparians on water potential (Topkaya 1998)

The Euphrates and Tigris rivers run parallel to each other and shortly after they enter Iraq they are never one hundred miles apart. The months of April and May are the times when the heaviest flows occur (Cohen 2000). The Euphrates river is formed in Turkey by two major tributaries: the Murat and the Karasu (Figure 2). These two streams form together to start the Euphrates river and the Keban Dam Lake (Topkaya 1998).

Figure 2. Euphrates-Tigris River Basins and the Riparian States (Topkaya 1998)

Baghdad, the capital city of Iraq, is located on the intersection of the Tigris and Diyala rivers. During the months of April and May parts of southern Iraq are often flooded, levees often collapse and roads are often built up on high embankments. The water flow of these rivers fluctuates greatly from one season to the next (Figure 3). In the summer months the average flow of the two rivers is approximately 200 cubic meters per second. In the springtime it reaches the level of 5000 or cubic meters per second. This means too much water for human consumption in the springtime and to little the rest of the year (Topkaya 1998).

Figure 3. Fluctuation of water flow during a water year (observed 1940-1980 at gauging stations on Turkish border) (Topkaya 1998)

Political Factors

The biggest and most intensive project ever-implemented in Turkey known as GAP. GAP includes irrigation and hydropower schemes and the construction of 22 dams and 19 hydroelectric power plants along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers (Figure 4). It is planned that 27 billion kilowatts of electricity will be generated annually which accounts for 22% of the country's economical viable hydropower potential. Over 1.7 million hectares of land will be irrigated which accounts for 19% of the economically irrigable area in Turkey (Topkaya 1998).

Figure 4. Watershed of the Euphrates-Tigris Rivers and the planned dams in GAP region in Turkey (Topkaya 1998)

When the GAP is completed, power plants and dams built on the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, will together allow more than 50 billion cubic meters of water to flow annually, (in Turkish boundaries) and will regulate 28% of Turkey's total water potential. Consumption of water by the country of Turkey varies between 40.8%, 22.2% and 34.5% from the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, respectively, as they are considered as one basin (Figure 5) (Topkaya 1998).

Figure 5. Contribution and Consumption of Water by Turkey (Topkaya 1998)

The GAP project brings serious concerns to Iraq and Syria because of the dependence of water to irrigate its agricultural fields. When the Ataturk dam was completed in 1990, the filling up of the lake behind the dam caused a 75 percent drop in the downstream water supply for an entire month (Swain 1998). The flow of the Euphrates to Syria could be reduced up to 40% and up to 80% in Iraq. This decrease in water volume will come with deterioration in the water quality due to upstream agricultural uses (Swain 1998). The April 1990 agreement between Iraq and Syria stated that where the Euphrates leaves Syria into Iraq, that Iraq gets 58% and 42% to Syria. With decreasing water flow from the Turkish side, Syria will have to reduce its flow to Iraq, and to face the situation; they may form an alliance against Turkey for the use of the Euphrates resources (Swain 1998).




Population Problem

According to experts at the Arabian Center for Dry and Arid Land Studies, the surface and ground water available in Arab lands is not sufficient enough to meet the drinking needs of the population. The shortage will affect environmental conditions in the area, and will impede further economic growth. In the 1950's only four countries had problems with water scarcity in the region. Now the number is ten, with four more countries estimated to join the group by the year 2000 (Al-Solh 1997). According to government agencies in the Middle East, water is indicated as the future source of conflict in the Middle East (Deconinck 2000). This dry area consists of one of the fastest growing populations in the world, as some 97.5 million people are expected to exceed 109.5 million by the year 2005 (Topkaya 1998). Every day the growing demand for food leads to more water scarcity. A shortage of water could be compensated by the import of 'virtual water', which saves 1000 tons of water for every single ton of grain imported (Deconinck 2000). Virtual water is water embedded in commodities such as grain (Allan 1998). More information will be discussed about virtual water in the next section Agriculture and Irrigation. The Worldwatch Institute (WWI) warns that a water war will be fought on the food market when food production cannot keep pace with population growth, which will cause the price of grain to rise. The poorer countries of the region will have to keep their population growth under control, which will pave the way they handle their water resources (Deconinck 2000).

Agriculture and Irrigation

The geographical Middle East has a rich history of agricultural productivity. Soils and climatic patterns differ from fertile plains and hills to deserts. The land that is tillable depends on the seasonal rainwater, or if irrigated, the water from subsoil aquifers or surface sources. Most of the surface waters in the area lie in the northern and northeastern regions (Isaac 1992). As mentioned before, the water flow is much less during the summer months when food needs to be grown (Figure 6). Less than 10% of an individual's needs is devoted to drinking and domestic use. More than 90% is devoted to food production (Allan 1998). It requires about sixteen times the amount of water to produce a kilogram of meat, to produce a kilogram of wheat. This explains why most of the food that is grown in the Tigris-Euphrates basin is wheat (Allan 1998). Turkey gets less than 250 millimeters of rainfall per year; the minimum amount needed for rain-fed agriculture. In contrast Turkey gets more than half of the amount of rainfall that Syria and Iraq get. As for Iraq, almost two-thirds of the country is desert; thus agricultural productivity is highly dependent on the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers for irrigation water (Lowi 1995). Although Iraq has an advantage because of a complex irrigation network and an efficient system of drainage. The drainage was achieved by supplying irrigation water from the Euphrates in the west and the Nahrawan canal in the east. This permitted the Tigris, which is situated between the two, to function as a drain. This supported great cultivation of the land around the Tigris River, without serious decline to the land. The system of drainage is not as good as it was during the Sassanian period (A.D. 226-637) due to the construction of dams along the Euphrates River (Murakami 1995).

Figure 6. Tigris River in Iraq (Mostyn and Hourani 1988)

Virtual water has a number of advantages for solving the water problem in the Middle East. First, virtual water is crucial politically, because it enables politicians to avoid confronting with the water deficit. Secondly, the virtual water embedded in grain is being traded less than its production cost (Allan 1998).

Desalination and other solutions

In some of the more arid parts of the Middle East, where good quality of water is extremely limited, desalination of seawater has been used to solve some of the problems. The country of Kuwait was the first to adopt seawater desalination in 1957 and linked electricity generation to desalination. Today there are about 1,483 desalination units operating in the Middle East. This accounts for 57.9% of all desalting plants in the world. The dominant type of plant that is used is the multi-stage flash (MSF) which accounts for 86.7% of all plants being used (Murakami 1995). However, there has been a recent trend towards the use of reverse osmosis (RO) in seawater desalination. RO has lower operation and maintenance cost and the reduction of energy consumption compared to the present MSF plants. The total costs of producing potable water from seawater by MSF plants are $4 per 1000 gallons. The costs of producing potable water by RO is 50 cents per 1000 gallons. To a thirsty person living in the Middle East, four dollars does not seem much, but these numbers seem dismaying to a farmer (Abelson 1991). The RO unit is stored in two separate containers. The first, the operation container, includes the membranes, high pressure pumps, cartridge filter, flushing/cleaning tank, transfer pump, dosing stations, control panel and a electric switchboard. The second contains two dual-media filters, the feed pump, a backwash air blower, and associated pipes and valves (Figure 7).

Figure 7. Reverse Osmosis Desalination Plant (Bosch 1996).

Figure 8. Understanding Reverse Osmosis (Togan 2001).

Figure 9. Cross Flow Filtration Module (Togan 2001).

Iraq argues that for thousands of years rivers have given life to the inhabitants of Mesopotamia and it is an acquired right for the people of Iraq. In other words no upstream country has the right to take away water. Iraq has also accused Turkey for violating "International Law", by not informing Iraq and reducing the amount of flow, the committed level behind the Ataturk Dam (Zahawi 1990). On the contrary Turkey officials' claim that the dams so far constructed and the ones to be constructed by Turkey on the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, would not only contribute to its own energy and irrigation needs, but also serve regulated water to its downstream neighbors. Turkish dams on the Euphrates River have been found efficient, due to their effective reservoirs and their low evaporation losses (Kolars 1994). With a rapid growing population and a limited amount of water to grow food, this area has a water problem that needs to be fixed. The use of RO desalination units might be the best answer to the water resource problem in the Middle East. Of the three countries Turkey, Syria and Iraq, Turkey has the absolute advantage. In addition to being upstream, it also enjoys military superiority. Given its status in the basin, it is unrealistic to see Turkey to cooperate with Syria and Iraq and share the water (Lowi 1995).

What can you do

Form letter about the GAP project in Turkey
Form letter about replacing old desalination units
Who to Contact


References

Abelson, 1991. Desalination of Brackish and Marine Waters. Science, March 15, 1991 v251 n4999 p1289(1).

Allan, 1998. Virtual Water: A Strategic Resource. Ground Water, July-August 1998 v36 n4 p545(2).

Al-Solh, 1997. Water Crisis in the Middle East. Retrieved on 1 February 2001 from the World Wide Web:http://www.arab.net/arabview/articles/sohl1.html.

Bosch, 1996. Nagasaki Shipyard & Machinery Works; Reverse Osmosis Desalination Plant. Retrieved on 27 March 2001 from the World Wide Web:http://www.mhi.co.jp/nsmw/htmle/other2.htm.

Cohen, 2000. "Euphrates,"Microsoft, Encarta, Online Encyclopedia 2000. Retrieved on 1 February 2001 from the World Wide Web: http://encarta.msn.com.

Deconinck, 2000. The Middle East Water Crisis: the Drought of a Conflict. Retrieved on 15 February 2001 from the World Wide Web:http://allserv.rug.ac.be/~sdconinc/waternet/drought2000.htm.

Isaac, 1992. Roots of the Water Conflict in the Middle East. Retrieved on 1 February 2001 from the World Wide Web:http://www.arij.org/water/pub/roots.htm.

Kolars, 1994. "Managing the Impact of Development: The Euphrates and Tigris Rivers and the Ecology of the Arabian Gulf-A-Link In Forging Tri-Riparian Cooperation", Haacettepe University an Friedrich-Naumann Foundation, Ankara, April 1994, P.137.

Lowi, 1995. Rivers of Conflict, Rivers of Peace. Journal of International Affairs, Summer 1995 49 n1 p123-144.

Miller, 1998. Living in the Environment. Wadsworth Publishing Company 1998.

Mostyn and Hourani, 1988. The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the Middle East and North Africa. Cambridge University Press 1988.

Murakami 1995. Managing Water for Peace in the Middle East: Alternative Strategies. United Nations University Press, Tokyo. Retrieved on 16 February 2001 from the World Wide Web:http://www.unu.edu/unupress/unupbooks/80858e/80858E00.htm#Contents.

Studt, 1998. Water Purification: A Basic Lab Need. R & D, March 1998 v40 n4 p59(1).

Swain, 1998. A New Challenge: Water Scarcity in the Arab World. Arab Atudies Quarterly, Winter 1998 v20 n1 p1(11).

Togan, 2001. Understanding the Concept of Reverse Osmosis. Retrieved on 27 March 2001 from the World Wide Web:http://www.ro.co.za/reverse.htm.

Topkaya, 1998. Water Resources in the Middle East: Forthcoming Problems and Solutions for Sustainable Development of the Region. Retrieved on 18 January 2001 from the World Wide Web: http://www.akdeniz.edu.tr/muhfak/publications/gap.html.

Zahawi, 1990. "The Euphrates Water Issue" by Arab Research Center, London, February 19, 1990.