Research Papers N° 1 Murray Biedler
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Research Papers N° 1 Centre Européen de Recherche Internationale et Stratégique HYDROPOLITICS OF THE TIGRIS - EUPHRATES RIVER BASIN WITH IMPLICATIONS FOR THE EUROPEAN UNION Murray Biedler 2004 1 Biography Murray Biedler Wynyard (Canada), 1957 Consultant Hydrology, Rhode University (South Africa), 1992 Ceris 2002-2003 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I wish to acknowledge and thank my supervisor Professor Robert Anciaux of the Faculté de Philosophie et Lettres at the Université Libre de Bruxelles, for his orientation and generous support of this work. Acknowledgements and thanks are due also to the Centre Européen de Recherches Internationales et Stratégiques – Ceris, to the Université de Paris XI - Faculté Jean Monnet Programme Master of Arts in International Politics – 2003-2004, and to the Institute Director Professor André Mirroir for inviting me to participate. Murray Biedler June 2004 2 Table of Contents Introduction ................................................................................................................ 4 Hydropolitics and the Water Security Complex……………………………………. 4 The Twin Rivers of the Tigris and Euphrates ........................................................... 5 The Euphrates............................................................................................................. 6 The Tigris .................................................................................................................... 6 Water Development, History and Security in the Tigris-Euphrates Basin………. 10 Water Development, History and Security in Turkey………………………………. 12 Financing of GAP: Turkey versus The World………………………………………15 The Politics of GAP………………………………………………………………….. 15 Water Development, History and Security in Syria.................................................. 15 Water Development, History and Security in Iraq.................................................... 17 Iraq, War and Water………………………………………………………………….. 24 Hydropolitics and Hydrological Impacts on Regional Security ............................. 20 Turkey’s Keban Dam and Syria’s Lake Assad………………………………………. 26 Turkey and the Attaturk Reservoir…………………………………………………. 26 Syria, the Orontes River and Hatay Province………………………………………. 28 Iraq and GAP…………………………………………………………………………. 30 Hydropolitical Conflict Resolution: Attempts to Achieve Regional Hydrological Harmony and Security………………………………………………30 The Joint Technical Committee (JTC) and Regional Tripartite Meetings……….. 31 International Water Rules and Water Rights………………………………………. 33 Exporting from the Water-Rich to the Water-Poor: Inter-Basin Transfers………35 Hydropolitical Conflict Resolution: Alternatives………………………………… 36 Ecological Approach to Management………………………………………………. 36 External Mediation……………………………………………………………………. 37 The Role of the EU: Regional Power and External Mediator?............................ 38 EU Development Policy on Water………………………………………………….. 38 The EU - Turkey Relationship……………………………………………………….. 40 Turkey and Accession………………………………………………………………… 41 Conclusions............................................................................................................... 34 3 Introduction This paper evaluates water management in the Tigris-Euphrates River Basin from a point of view of Hydropolitics. The three riparian countries to be focused on are Turkey, Syria and Iraq. They will each be described in their individual hydropolitical context. The history and nature of regional disputes over water will be presented, followed by a discussion of models and attempts to resolve these disputes and to promote realistic and sustainable water management of the Tigris-Euphrates River Basin. Finally the role of the European Union as an external influence on the process, the special relationship that exists between Turkey and the EU, and the implications this may have on negotiating towards a settlement of this complex dispute will be examined. Hydropolitics and the Water Security Complex Hydropolitics, a term developed in the 1990’s, deals with the politics of international water resources. It tends to be multidisciplinary and includes a political, technical, economic, social and legal approach to analysing international water issues. This multi-disciplinary approach not only reflects the growing interest and concern over international water issues, but also the complexity of these same issues. One such is the water security complex or the hydropolitical security complex, defined as “a group of states whose primary hydropolitical concerns link together sufficiently closely that their national hydropolitics cannot be realistically considered separate from one another”. 1 The development of the idea of a hydropolitical security complex is derived from the work of Barry Buzan who explains the security complex as being a “set of units whose major processes of securitisation, desecuritisation, or both are so inter-linked that their security problems cannot reasonably be analysed or resolved apart from one another”. 2 It recognizes the fact that “in terms of foreign policy-making most states define their security relations in regional rather than global terms and that when they confront global issues there is a tendency to see these as determined by the regional context. In effect the region dominates the perception of security.” 3 This is seen as a major departure from the traditional military-state approach to security studies and is an important tool that allows us to put water at the centre of a security (and therefore foreign policy) analysis between Turkey, Syria and Iraq. 4 The Twin Rivers of the Tigris and Euphrates The Tigris and the Euphrates rivers are the two greatest rivers of western Asia and can rightfully lay claim to the appellation ‘exotic’ as they traverse different climatic and topographic zones in their journey from source to the mouth. Their origins are “…scarcely 30 kilometres from each other, in a relatively cool and humid zone with a rugged landscape of high mountains and deep gorges, raked by autumn and spring rains and visited by winter snows. From there, incongruously, the two rivers run separately onto a wide, flat, hot, and poorly drained plain. In their middle courses, they diverge hundreds of kilometres apart, only to meet again near the end of their journey and discharge together into the Persian Gulf.” 4 Geographically and historically, the upper sections of the rivers have carved their way through, and into, the Tertiary Rock and mountain gorges of Anatolia and the high plateaux of Syria and Iraq. There has been little change in their physical position, always separate and always parallel, until the twin rivers fall off the final limestone plateau and onto the great plain of Mesopotamia. It is here that the rivers, heavily loaded with silt from the highlands, lose much of their energy and begin to meander and sometimes separate in series of braided channels. Over millennia the rivers in Mesopotamia have changed their positions numerous times due to flooding. There have been many industrious attempts by man to construct diversions and canals in order to use the silt- rich rivers for irrigation purposes over increasingly wider zones of agricultural cultivation. It has been estimated that over 3million tons of eroded soils and earth materials are deposited into the Tigris-Euphrates basin in a single day. This will vary with higher discharges during spring flows from snow melt (March to May) and the lower discharges of the hotter and drier summer months (July to October). A smaller surge of water discharge occurs during the winter months due to the winter rains. The difference between the low summer discharges and those of the spring run-off from the snows can indeed be great; as much as 10 times. In terms of agriculture the timing of these peaks and lows is unfavourable for the practice of direct flooding irrigation: the peaks are too late for winter crops and spring runoff arrives too early to be used for many summer crops (except for rice). For much of the arable land of the Mesopotamian plain where rainfall is low, it is necessary to divert water from the rivers during periods of high crop demand and, in some cases, provide storage as well. This required good engineering skills and water management practices. For those responsible to manage the flows of the rivers it was also apparent that diversion and storage were an 5 effective tool for reducing the heavy impacts and destruction of flooding. These silt-rich river systems slowly deposited their bedload as they moved across the plain, eventually building up layer by layer a river bed (or levee) that rests at times above the surrounding plain. It is no surprise that such a structure often became unstable during floods, at which time the rivers jumped their banks and changed their course. 5 The Euphrates The majority of the headwaters for the Euphrates (about two-thirds) are located in the Turkish region of Anatolia. The River begins with 2 tributaries, the Murat-Su and the Kara-Sue (or Frat-Sue) which meet north of the city of Elazia. Here the river is almost entirely snow-fed from mountain streams. Flowing southward, the Euphrates comes within 160km of the Mediterranean before it turns left into Syria to continue in a south-westerly direction, almost straight towards the Persian Gulf. While traversing the barren Northeast corner of Syria known as the ‘duck’s-bill’ (due to the triangular shape of this small piece of territory) the Euphrates is joined by 2 tributaries; the Balikh and the Khabur rivers. There is not a large