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A certain gentile asked Rabbi Joshua: “You have festivals ,

A certain gentile asked Rabbi Joshua: “You have festivals , and we have festivals. We do not rejoice when you do, and you do not rejoice when we do. When do we rejoice together?” “When the rain falls,” answered Rabbi Joshua - Midrash Genesis Rabbah, 13:6. Freshwater Resources and Dam.

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A certain gentile asked Rabbi Joshua: “You have festivals ,

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  1. A certain gentile asked Rabbi Joshua: “You have festivals , and we have festivals. We do not rejoice when you do, and you do not rejoice when we do. When do we rejoice together?” “When the rain falls,” answered Rabbi Joshua - Midrash Genesis Rabbah, 13:6

  2. Freshwater Resources and Dam Ataturk Dam and the Harran Plain, Turkey • 1975 -Dryland agriculture before the dam and reservoir were constructed. • 1999 -Greening of the Harran Plain. • Area population increases 49% during the 1990’s

  3. Water use and demand in Syria, 1950 - 2030

  4. Population (in 1000s)

  5. Contribution to and withdrawal from the Euphrates River, 2000

  6. Hydropolitics • Intermittent negotiations and technical discussions (50 years), but no agreement on a treaty to: • “Share” water (Syria and Iraq terms) • “Allocate” water (Turkey)

  7. Turkey’s Southeast Anatolia Project (GAP) • $32 billion US • 22 dams; 19 hydro plants; 25 irrigation systems • Various past tensions: 1975 construction of dam and Lake Assad – Iraq threatened to attack Syria • Concern over Turkey’s activities resulted in an agreement (1990) whereby Syria gets 42% and Iraq 58% of Euphrates water entering Syria (regardless of amount)

  8. Rivers treated separately, even though they merge in Iraq to form Shatt-al-Arab • Joint technical committee established in 1980 (Syria joined in 1983), but suspended when Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990. • Ataturk Dam increased Turkey’s irrigated area by 20%; diversion will take 1/3 of Euphrates flow

  9. Tacit agreement that Turkey will supply 500 cu m/sec to Syria. This is occurring (so far) • Turkey release 50% of natural flow… not unreasonable • Arabs want equitable (1/3) apportionment to each country

  10. Turkey and the UN Convention • UN Convention should only have set out general guidelines and not specific mechanisms. • UN Convention should have established that the principle of equitable and reasonable utilization took precedence over the obligation not to cause significant harm

  11. New agreement with Israel for technical cooperation, training, water export and military hardware… • In this context, Syrian support for PKK (the Kurdish people’s party) upset Turkey (threatened to “turn off taps”)… overall, resulted in 30,000 killed (1984-1998)

  12. Mesopotamian Marshlands • Saddam Hussein drained most of the marshlands in the 1990s and 400,000 people (or more) were displace (all Shiia) • Marshlands straddle Iraq and Iran; there are oil fields; now some agriculture. • Iraqi marshlands reduced to 9% of its original size; now back to 30% or more

  13. Agricultural development in or near the marshlands

  14. Mesopotamian Marshland, Iraq and Iran: Demise of an Ecosystem Title Body text 1973-2000: Most of the wetlands disappeared

  15. Water Returns to the Mesopotamian Marshlands Title Body text Greening of some of the Marshlands in recent years.

  16. Next steps • Multi-stakeholder meetings • Develop governance structures (federal; governate(3); district(57); and NGOs • Develop a broader master plan with socio-economic components • But… where is the government? Will there be a civil war? What happens to the marshlands?

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