Water resources have become one of the main mechanisms for interventions in internal Arab conflicts, Marcus King has called this “Weaponizing Water”, specifically in light of the complexities of these conflicts as well their longevity and including a lack of alternatives to water due to climate change. This has become more apparent in the cases of Yemen, Syria and Iraq with the rise of violent non-state actors in these hotspots, whether they were armed militias or terrorist groups, which were fighting regular armed forces and were targeting their infrastructure. This has risen to the point that the issue of water rights in the Arab region has become very unclear.
Governance of Water:
The scarcity of water and the large retreat in the share of the individual in renewable water resources, as some international assessments are noting that water resources, per individual, has retreated almost 50 per cent during the period between 2000 and 2025. This is taking into account that the share of global water resources is increasing by 8.4 per cent yearly, this is one of the most striking features of water governance in the Arab region during the last couple of decades, especially with the increase in demand vs. supply and an increase in the competition between the different sectors using water (industrial, agricultural and home)
The Secretary General of the Arab League, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, has warned during his speech, in the 8th session for the Arab Ministers of Water in Cairo on the 26th of October 2016, of the dangers of the scarcity of water in the region and its effects on the stability of politics, economics and society. He stated, “Fresh water resources in the Arab world are considered to be the least in the world from among 33 states that are representing the most water scarce nations on Earth as over 14 Arab states have had a retreat in their share of water by over 2/3 during the last 4 years alone.
Aboul Gheit also stated that “the dimensions of the issue are no longer unclear to anyone, as the population increases rapidly in most Arab states, whilst water resources remain steady (actually in retreat in some cases whether by size or type) has led to the result all Arab states moving into the category of water poor”. In accordance with this, this escalating crisis in the Arab region due to the rising population and also the scarcity of water, as well as the mismanagement of water resources by very old techniques in various different fields, especially agriculture, has led to the using up of large amounts of water resources.
Another issue that has become apparent as being a factor in the water crisis in the Arab region is represented in the polluting of many water resources that has made them unfit for use by humans, due to the use of chemical weapons in conflicts as well as pesticides in agriculture. This has affected in turn the purity of sewage water that is dumped into river that has a lot of pollution, as well as the factor of greed for regional neighbors that wish to gain control over water resources.
Neighborly Aspirations:
The Iraqi Minister for Water Resources, Hasan El Janabi, warned, in his speech during the last session for the Arab Water Ministers, of Turkish control over the sources of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and the lack of a permanent agreement on how to share water. He also warned that Turkey has now almost completed the Ilisu Dam on the Tigris River which will consume more than half of the water resources of Iraq”. He pointed out that his country was willing to negotiate with Turkey in order to bypass this dangerous issue for Iraq and maintain the path of relations on water issues with Turkey, away from any politics.
At the same time, Professor Mahmoud Mohieldin, the first vice president to the IMF stated in an Arab conference for environment and development in Beirut on the 9th of November 2016: “That Arab states are the most water scarce countries in the world and some are at the bottom in terms of water production. Arab states are also the states that provide the most subsidies in the world and it is not enough as it is manipulated by the rich and abused. The World Bank Group will try its utmost to provide counseling on how to introduce technologies to raise water and energy efficiency and to build up on local communities through quick schemes, to provide services in participation with citizens. They would also move to establish new water management systems, develop the water producing mechanisms in farming, provide better water efficiency management and also expand on international water treaties.”
The most important variable in the coming phase is that the challenges of water resources in the Arab states cannot be separated from the political, security and economic challenges, especially after the popular revolts have turned into armed conflicts. Yemen is from amongst the most water scarce countries in the region, the internal struggle has doubled the crisis of water shortages in Yemen, as well as destroying the general infrastructure and basic services, and has further strained the use of water in agriculture, health and sustainability uses.
It is most likely that the scarcity of water, as well as the lack of sanitary services, will lead to a spread of water borne diseases despite the rescue role that the UN agencies are undertaking, as well as international NGOs and Arab states, in fixing the issue of water scarcity in Yemen. They have attempted to fix the water networks, health services and others in an effort to help alleviate the problems of the communities as well as implementing services to prevent the spread of diseases in the country and to provide alternate solutions to moving water to where it is needed.
It is worthy of note that the amount of water that is dedicated to one person in Yemen annually, does not exceed 140 cubic meters, whilst the international norm is 1700 cubic meters annually, which is considered to be a severe shortage of water. Some reports note that the Yemeni capital of Sanaa could become without water by the year 2019 in accordance with the worst-case scenarios.
5.5 million people in the capital of Syria, Damascus, are also in a chronic shortage of water over the past 25 days with the ongoing exchanges over control on the resource and the exchange in accusations on who is responsible. It seems that the Government in Syria targeted the water pumps in the Naba Ain al-Fijah area (which is the primary source of drinking water in Damascus) as the government forces are waging a battle with the armed opposition in the suburbs of Damascus. The other point of view sees that ISIS is the one that was able to cut off the water supplies of the regime that is fighting an ongoing battle in Palmyra and Deir Ez-Zor in the East of the country.
War Crimes:
Yan Igland, the head of the working group on humanitarian assistance to Syria in the UN, affirmed in a press conference on the 4th of January 2017 that: “It is difficult to know who is responsible for the current situation”. “That acts of sabotage on water is a war crime as civilians are the ones that drink it and are the ones that will become suffer if it is not made available.” Liz Grant, the coordinator for the humanitarian relief efforts in the UN in Iraq, stated on the 30th of November 2016 that: “Almost Half a Million civilians are suffering from food shortages daily as they are now unable to have access to drinking water.”
ISIS has used water as a political weapon after they took over the Mosul dam in Mid-June 2014 and they repeated this in Fallujah after they threatened the capital Baghdad with drowning. They have also moved to cut off water supplies to the city of Ramadi, the largest city in the Anbar province in June 2015, yet the quick reaction forces and the Peshmerga were able to respond to prevent this from happening. The matter was repeated again in the Diyala province, in the region of Baqubah, yet the locals in cooperation with the Iraqi army were able to liberate the water pumps from the hands of ISIS.
This did not stop there as the Hayat Newspaper based in London reported on the 20th of January 2017 that satellite imagery showed in November 2016 the Tigris River has become threatened by oil pollution due to the oil fields that were burned by ISIS in the areas of North Iraq. This has led the UN to consider this act as an act of long-term extinction, bringing back memories of Iraqi forces burning more than 650 oil wells in Kuwait in 1991 that led to a massive environmental disaster.
New Dimensions:
From what was previously mentioned, it is worthy to note that the weaponizing of water in the Arab region has gained many new dimensions, represented in the following:
1. Terrorist Groups Control: In the aftermath of the dominance of ISIS on most of the land of the Euphrates basin in Syria, they established a Ministry of Agriculture that dictated what needs to be planted and imposes taxes on farmers. At the same time, they witnessed a decline in the number of experts that work in this field and this has led to the deterioration of the irrigation services in comparison with the pre-2011 levels. Farmers are also lacking the needed fertilizers and pesticides that have become very rare and expensive as it cannot be bought except from the areas under regime control via smugglers. The dryness of the land and reduction in crops collection has helped to ignite the Syrian civil war even further.
2. Limiting the Advances of Regime Forces: ISIS always resorts to the water threat whenever the bottle neck around them increases when regime forces advance, this applies to both the Syrian and Iraqi conflicts, especially after ISIS has lost a quarter of the areas under its control in 2016 and is likely to lose more in this year. ISIS on occasion has allowed teams of engineers, after negotiations with the elders of various tribes, to go in and repair the damage to the water pumps in order to restore drinking water to these areas, this has come to be known as the “Water Truce”.
3. The Rise in Tribal Competition: It is likely that water will become scarcer in the coming years and this has led to increased calls for the disposal of crops that use up large amounts of water, such as cotton, in exchange for more modern irrigation techniques. On that note, assessments have found that the authorities that will fill up the voids left behind by ISIS in both Iraq and Syria, will face a number of challenges if they do not take the needed steps to restore these services, as the scarcity of resources will increase the competition amongst the tribes over them.
4. Enraging the Local Population Centers: This applies to the residents of the Wadi Barada area in Syria that went out of the control of the regime in the second year of the conflict, especially after the loss of water for a number of weeks. This region is very important strategically to the parties to the conflict as it represents a water source for the capital Damascus and it is considered a uniting section between Qalamoun and Al Zabadani.
5. Regional Powers Intervention: Due to the fact that most water sources in the Arab region come from outside of the Arabian geographic and political borders, such as the case for the Tigris and the Euphrates, the role of regional powers comes into play as Turkey is seeking to make political changes on the geographic map. They would like to achieve this by tying the issue of water resources and using it as a pressure card to both Syria and Iraq.
Water Scarcity:
In conclusion, the transition in some Arab states with large influence has come with the loss of water resources, as it has no longer become only a natural resource, but also a source of conflict. This has added to the issue a military perspective to the point that some writings now see that water security has become parallel to military security in the regions of ongoing conflict. At the same time, the attempts to balance economic and social justice with that of the environmental needs have all become a primary objective to allow for effective governance on water resources in the Arab states that are considered relatively stable.
