Ankara suspends pumping Euphrates’ water (into Syria)

originally posted by: Vovin
Maybe I didn't want to waste my time reading your hostile crap. .

- Factual information isn't 'hostile crap'. It's factual information.
- All information posted relates to the topic of water wars with Syria involved.
- It's hypocritical to say 'poor Syria' because of Turkey putting up dams .. but then not say 'bad Syria' because of what they are doing to Jordan. It's the same thing.
- Read and educate yourself.

originally posted by: Vovin
maybe you'd be better off keeping your opinion on your side of your border.

This is a discussion forum.
If you don't want to hear peoples' opinions ... then this isn't the place for you.

a reply to: Vovin

Cruel as it may seem, the last time I checked a nation's sovereignty wasn't dependant on the flow of a river.

PDF - Desalination for Syria
A study from almost 20 years ago - 2005.
Done for Syria by Engineers from the University of Nottingham UK

Syria was warned at least 20 years ago that they needed desalination plants. There were already water shortages 20 years ago, before Turkey dammed the river. There were warnings about future water shortages for the country as well.

Turkey putting up a dam obviously isn't helping Syria, but a lot of Syrias water problems comes from inside of Syria.

Water shortages have also affected many regions in Syria as a result of the fast depletion of natural fresh water resources. This is owing to several factors. First of all, the decrease of underground water level besides the increase of the salt concentration as a result of the over pumping of aquifers for irrigation and other purposes. Further, the population growth with an actual rate equals to 3.3%. Forecasts expected that within the next 20 years, the Syrian population will increase from 18 millions in 2001 to 28 millions in 2020. Additionally, the damage to the Euphrates, Oronte and Barrada river basins because of the disposal of sanitary sewage in addition to the increasing damping of the industrial wastes as well as the industrial development. Available water resources in 2000 were 16.5 billion m3, and there are already water shortages in all water basins with the exception of the coastal region and the Euphrates.

It is clear that a solution should be found to increase the water resources in the country, and in fact the Syrian government has made several attempts to find solutions, such as building dams and creating multipurpose reservoirs such as Lake Assad and the Tabaqah Dam. The development of non-conventional water resources including water desalination technologies would form an essential source which means the increasing of the national water budget. Desalination will allow Syria to invest the seawater and its brackish water in the eastern regions in order to obtain industrial and drinking water.

It was determined that there are large reservoirs of brackish water in Syria that could be desalinized. The water from the coast would have to be piped in to the cities which Syria could easily do. And 20 years ago it was determined that Syria had an adequate source of medium term energy to pursue a desalination strategy.

It's been 20 years. If Syria had put money and resources into the desalination projects then they would have an over abundance of water like Israel has with their desalination. (and yes, Syria had the money and resources to be able to do it)

In this day and age there is no reason for a coastal country to not have desalination. Syria and Turkey both can afford it and have the knowledge of how to make it happen. Turkey is working the desalination .. and has been for years. For further information ...

Turkish Municipalities Make Their Desalination Debut
Aqua Match Turkey
Desalination Market in Turkey

Oct. 8, 2010 - Turkey currently has 472,332 m3/d of contracted desalination capacity, but this will rise to 1,096,865 m3/d by 2016. During that time the cost of operating existing plants and the new plants that come on line will rise to $158.3m, compared to $73.1m in 2010. This steep increase in expenditure on desalination is part of a global trend towards the development of alternative water resources in the face of growing scarcity.

The forecast is based on the timing of proposed desalination projects in Turkey, and expectations of increased demand for water as a result of urbanisation, economic growth, and increased irrigation. Among the desalination projects on the horizon in Turkey are a proposal for a large plant serving Istanbul, and a couple of projects in Turkish controlled Northern Cyprus.

Essentially the amount of naturally occurring fresh water in the world is constant – or even declining because of the over-exploitation of non-renewable ground water resources. Demand for water continues to grow as the need to increase agricultural production sucks up available water for irrigation, forcing urban water users to develop new resources. Overall global desalination capacity is expected to grow from 68.3 million m3/d at the beginning of this year to 129.9 million m3/d by the end of 2016. Full details can be found at www.desalmarkets.com.

a reply to: FlyersFan

Interesting info...

While it most likely would never happen I would love to see all gulf nations work together to create a sustainable water infrastructure for all.

originally posted by: Xcathdra
I would love to see all gulf nations work together to create a sustainable water infrastructure for all.

Instead of all the money going to fighting each other and international intrigue ... they could be working on actually raising up the quality of life for the people in each of the countries. Israel did it. And Israel is working with land-locked Jordan in regards to water. The others have the resources to do away with water shortages if they wish. The water situation isn't new so its not like they got caught unaware.

originally posted by: BasementWarriorKryptonite
a reply to: Vovin

Cruel as it may seem, the last time I checked a nation's sovereignty wasn't dependant on the flow of a river.

It's about context.

The American state department banned the export of any water treatment equipment to Iraq in the 1990s, under the pretense that the equipment could be used to build missiles. In reality, it was to pressure the Iraqi people into rebelling against the government (the point of all sanctions).

Madeline Albright famously stated that "it was worth it" to enforce this sanction, even though she knew that it vastly degraded the quality of life and directly contributed to the deaths of over 500,000 children:



What some members here explicitly ignore is that international law, which is largely non-binding, is customary law. If a country sanctions another country while knowing that this sanction will create a health crisis, in order to punish a population for their choice in government, then they have just carried out terrorism in its real definition.

The UN should be all over this trying to broker a solution, but they aren't. And this is because the UN is a joke when it is toothless to deal with very real crimes of genocide already taking place in countries like Israel and Ukraine.

Genocide is now a fact of life. And it's just so sad that some people refuse to call a spade a spade because their government calls it a heart while it sees diamonds.

a reply to: Vovin

How is this the fault of the US?

More importantly why didn't Russia or China veto it?

Maybe Hussein should have been spending money on infrastructure instead of military.

Also in case you missed it the US has in fact built / assisted in construction of water treatment, reverse osmosis water plants in Iraq. If you are going to post info please put it into context instead of using a 30 second snippet.

ETA - The item the US would not sell to Iraq because of sanctions was....


wait for it.....

Chlorine gas.

Iraq refused the oil for money program starting in 1991. Also the total number of possible casualties has not been determined. That is from your source.

originally posted by: Xcathdra
a reply to: Vovin

How is this the fault of the US?

More importantly why didn't Russia or China veto it?

Maybe Hussein should have been spending money on infrastructure instead of military.

Also in case you missed it the US has in fact built / assisted in construction of water treatment, reverse osmosis water plants in Iraq. If you are going to post info please put it into context instead of using a 30 second snippet.

ETA - The item the US would not sell to Iraq because of sanctions was....


wait for it.....

Chlorine gas.

Iraq refused the oil for money program starting in 1991. Also the total number of possible casualties has not been determined. That is from your source.

Maybe you should pick up a book for once in your life and read it. This issue is in established literature.

You claim that it wasn't the US's fault and that Iraq should have focused on infrastructure and not military... Unfortunately for that argument, history clearly shows that Saddam didn't do much to rebuild his forces after the Gulf War and in the post that you quoted of mine, I clearly stated that the USA enforced restrictions banning Iraq from importing key equipment for infrastructure.

And chlorine gas? The same gas that Rumsfeld gave to Saddam?

a reply to: Vovin

no you stated the US refused to give water technology to Iraq. What we did was refuse to give them chlorine gas. However, liquid chlorine was discussed.

As for reading a book - ditto - specifically why Russia and China didn't veto the resolutions for Iraq.
Why didn't Russia or china, or other nations, supply the needed items?

When your done reading your little red book may I borrow a copy.

Sanctions are enforced by the individual country and not the US.

Saddam put himself into the position he was in. Next time don't try and claim Kuwait as your 19th province.

Why did Russia not veto?
Why did China not veto?
Why did China / Russia not supply items to Iraq?

Stop solely blaming the US when its been established the US is not the only country to blame.

As for

a reply to: Xcathdra

Interesting additional reading - NASA Technology Aids Water Purification In Iraq

That being said .... desalination plants have technology that is available to all the countries in that region. They have the technology and the ability to utilize them. Piping over land can be arranged like Israel is doing for Jordan. For these countries suffering water shortages to blame others is nothing more than themselves not taking personal responsibility. I provided information showing that the water shortage happening now was predicted 20 years ago. Overpopulation, pollution, and mismanagement of land resources is all self-produced and is adding to the water shortage problem. Also the solution was presented 20 years ago. These countries could have put down their arms and stopped fighting, and instead worked together to build desalination projects. But ... they would rather overpopulate, pollute, and fight ... so now they have a water shortage. It's no ones fault but their own.