From: senel@vuse.vanderbilt.edu (Hakan)
Subject: Forwarding from TRKNWS-L
Originator: senel@irlsp
Organization: Insulting, Ridiculing, Forwarding Inc.
Date: Sat, 26 Sep 1992 17:05:50 GMT


  > From: "(Al Trh)" <trh@jack.sns.com>
  > Subject:      Middle East water problems--excerpts from 
                  international journals

Forwarded message:
>From neptune.sws.uiuc.edu!ali Fri Sep 25 20:41:14 1992
From: ali@neptune.sws.uiuc.edu (Ali Durgunoglu)
Message-Id: <9209252153.AA05944@neptune.sws.uiuc.edu>
Subject: Middle East water problems--excerpts from international journals
To: trh@jack.sns.com, trh@mcimail.com
Date: Fri, 25 Sep 92 16:53:34 CDT
X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.3 PL0]


Recently, the number of articles in international water-related
publications focusing on the water supply problems of the Middle
East countries has increased.  I took some excerpts from two of
these most recent articles, in which Turkey is mentioned as a
possible source of water supply for the region.  If there is
interest, I will continue to post such articles as they appear.

Ali Durgunoglu
ali-durgun@uiuc.edu

__________________________________________________________

   APPROACHES TO RESOLVING THE WATER CONFLICTS BETWEEN
ISRAEL AND HER NEIGHBORS -- A REGIONAL WATER-FOR-PEACE PLAN
                           by
                    Hillel I. Shuval

            Environmental Health Laboratory
           Division of Environmental Sciences
                 The Hebrew University
             Givat Ram, Jerusalem, Israel

Water International, 1992, Volume 17, No. 3, pp. 133-143.
                 ___________________
......
[Text deleted]
......

Turkey-Syria-Jordan-West Bank

   President Ozal of Turkey promoted the concept of
a Peace Pipeline to transport water from Turkey to
its water-short neighbors to the south [20].  A less
ambitious plan calls for a pipeline from Turkey through
Syria and Jordan to Amman and to the Palestinian
communities in the West Bank that could supply
some 600 MCM/Yr (million cubic meters per year).
This concept has been described as the Turkish Mini-Peace
Pipeline [20].  The Sea of Galilee and/or the Unity Dam
also could be used as reservoirs for supplying water to
Jordan  and the Palestinians.
   I propose that an alternative idea worth studying
would be to bring the Turkish pipeline only as far as
southern Syria to meet all its needs. This would be
on the condition that Syria releases the now it has
diverted from the Yarmuk River meet the needs
of Jordan and the West Bank. Thus the Turkish
pipeline would be even shorter and less expensive,
and would directly involve only the two countries.
    Turkey has significant water reserves at this time
of some 180,000 MCM/Yr only about 15 per cent
of which is currently utilized. Not all the above
quantities of water can be utilized economically but
within the next fifty years, and with optimum economic
and agricultural development, significant
amounts of the country's water reserves will remain
untapped, so that the Mini-Peace Pipeline would not
deprive Turkey of needed  water resources in the
foreseeable future [20-22].
    Even if such a project is feasible from an engineering
and economic point of view there remains the question
of whether such a complicated multinational
project can bc achieved in the tension-laden Middle
East between long-term rivals with little faith in each
other.
    The supply of Turkish water to Israel through  such
a system is improbable, both because of difficulties
in obtaining agreement of all the counties involved
and no less because of Israel's serious concern  with
being dependent  on water sources from such great
distances that can be cut off at any time by potentially
hostile neighbors.  However even if the Turkish project
only supplies the additional  water needs of Syria,
Jordan, and the Palestinians, it can make a major
contribution  to alleviating the water problems of the
area.
..........
[Text deleted]
..........

[20]. Gould, D., "The Selling of the Peace Pipeline" Near
      East Economic Development, 26 March 1988, p.80.

[21]. Kolars, J., "The Course of the Water in the Arab
      Middle East," American Arab Affairs, No. 33, Summer, 1990.

[22]. Kolars, J., and W.A. Mitchell, The Euphrates River and
      the Southeast Anatolia Development Project,
      Southern Illinois University Press, Carbondale, Illinois,
      U.S.A., 1991, 324 pp.


____________________________________________________________
        JORDAN'S WATER RESOURCES: TECHNICAL PERSPECTIVE
                            by
                 Radwan Al-Mubarak Al-Weshah,
                  Hydro Science Laboratory
          University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Water International, 1992, Volume 17, No 3, pp.124-132.
              ___________________

......
[Text Deleted]
......

Interstate Water Transfer and Regional Cooperation

     Regional projects for importing water through
pipelines have been proposed but not implemented due
to the economical and political constraints in the
area.  Two plans were proposed to transfer water
to Jordan:

  1. The Euphrates River Pipeline.  This idea started
in 1984, and was reconsidered in 1989; it proposed
importing water through a 600 km long pipeline from
the Euphrates  River in Iraq to Jordan, supplying
Jordan with 160 MCM annually.  The pumping station
would have to overcome a head of 1400 m.  The
estimated cost of this project was more than US$2
billion [4].  It is very unlikely to be implemented in
the near future because of its high cost and the
hydropolitical situation in the area.  Furthermore,
Turkey, which is an upstream country to Iraq, has
been developing  massive irrigation and water projects
that will restrict the flow in the Euphrates.

  2. The Turkish "Peace Pipeline." This project, which
was proposed by Prime  Minister Ozal in 1987, requires
more international participation and  support.
According to the proposal, this conveyer would carry
3.5 MCM of water daily from the Seyhan and Ceyhan
Rivers in southeast Turkey through two major pipelines
[17].  The western pipeline would supply water
to Syria, Jordan, the West Bank, and the Western
region  of Saudi Arabia.  This costly project would
provide 220 MCM per year to Jordan (0.6 MCM per day) [17].
The eastern pipeline would provide water
to Saudi Arabia and other gulf states.
    At this stage, this plan is still theoretical and it
does not have a high probability of being financed because
construction costs have been estimated to exceed US$2O
billion.  Another problem with these interstate pipes is
the absence of trust between the respective
counties and the political instability of the region,
which might result in the closing of such a pipeline.
On the other hand, the estimated cost of water supply
from this project was about US$ 1 per cubic meter,
which is very reasonable compared with the cost of
desalinating  sea water which may exceed US$2 per
cubic meter.  Despite all the fears and concerns,
regional  water interstate cooperation is the only hope
to overcome the tight water situation in the region.
Any local project will not solve the problem but may
shift the crisis time a few steps ahead.  More
international effort should be directed to building up
confidence in the region and to establishing a "Water
Charter," which could eliminate any threat of closure
by any country.

......
[Text Deleted]
......

[4].  Al-Fataftah, A., and M. Abu-Taleb, "Jordan's Action
      Water Plan," Sustainable Water Res. Man. in Arid
      Countries: Middle East and North Africa, E.J.
      Schiller, ed., Int. Water Res. Assoc./Canadian J.
      of Development Studies (special issue) Ottawa,
      Canada, April 1992, pp. 153-171.

[17]. Duna, C., "Turkey's Peace Pipeline," The Politics of
      Scarcity.  Water in the Middle East, J. Starr and D.
      Stoll, eds., Westview Press, Boulder, Colorado, U.S.A .
      and London, England, 1988, pp. 119-124.
......
[Text Deleted]
......

-- 
__________________________________________________________________
God made the Idiot for practice, and then He made the School Board
                -- Mark Twain
__________________________________________________________________
Xref: sparky soc.culture.turkish:10482 soc.culture.greek:9504