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Iraq’s Water Challenges
June 13th, 2010
Courtesy of The New York Times, a report on how the The Shatt al Arab, the river that flows from the biblical site of the Garden of Eden to the Persian Gulf, has turned into an environmental and economic disaster that Iraq’s newly democratic government is almost powerless to fix. As the article notes: “…Withered […]
Read more »Hydrologic Security and Syria’s Liquid Worries
February 17th, 2010
Courtesy of Circle of Blue, a report detailing how much of Syria’s economics, history, politics, diplomacy, and culture have often been defined in a large part by water. As the article notes, water is a key to peace and prosperity in the region and it may also be key to war and conflict among Syria […]
Read more »The Ring Tide of Mideast Water Tension: Neo-Ottomanism & Turkey As A Hydrological Superpower
January 9th, 2010
Courtesy of NPR, an interesting look at the acute water shortage in the Middle East, and downstream resentment from Arabs, Iraqis and the Syrians that Turkey is growing into a hydrological superpower. As the article notes: The massive Ataturk Dam (shown here in 1992), in southeast Turkey, harnesses water for one of the biggest irrigation […]
Read more »Turkey Unable To Give More Water To Iraq And Syria
September 8th, 2009
Via Terra Daily, an update on the difficult situation facing Turkey, Iraq, and Syria over sharing the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. As the article notes: “…Turkey cannot give more water to Iraq and Syria, Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said Thursday as officials from the three neighbours met here to discuss the sharing of the Tigris […]
Read more »The Drought Crescent: Water Politics In The Middle East
September 5th, 2009
Via Conde Nest’s Traveler, an interesting report on Jordan which sits at the center of nations competing for scarce water resources amid a controversial plan to tap the Red Sea. As the article notes, these lands were part of what was once called the Fertile Crescent, where three great rivers—the Nile, the Tigris, and the […]
Read more »River Wars? Increasing Tension Between Iraq, Turkey, and Syria
August 29th, 2009
Via The Guardian, an ominous update on the ever increasing tension & crisis between Iraq, Turkey, and Syria over water levels in the Euphrates. As the article notes: “…A water shortage described as the most critical since the earliest days of Iraq’s civilisation is threatening to leave up to 2 million people in the south […]
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