Water politics in the Middle East deals with control of the water resources of the Middle East, an arid region where issues of the use, supply, control, and allocation of water are of central economic importance. Politically contested watersheds include the Tigris–Euphrates river system which drains to the south-east through Iraq into the Persian Gulf, the Nile basin which drains northward through Egypt into the eastern Mediterranean Sea, and the Jordan River basin which flows into the Dead Sea (400 m below sea level), a land-locked and highly saline sea bordered by Jordan to the east and Israel to the west. Especially the Nile and the Tigris–Euphrates formed the Fertile Crescent, a cradle of civilization and birthplace of agriculture (and agrarianism) dating back 10,000 years. Farmers in the Mesopotamian plain practiced irrigation from at least the third millennium BCE. In the modern era, water politics in the region intensified with the Israeli Declaration of Independence of 14 May 1948, a central event of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. Soon thereafter, Israel initiated a unilateral water-diversion project within the Jordan River basin in development of Israel's National Water Carrier. Concurrently with these actions, the Jordan Valley Unified Water Plan was negotiated and developed by US ambassador Eric Johnston between 1953 and 1955 and approved by technical water committees of all the regional riparian countries—Israel, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria—though rejected by the Arab League. Armed conflict resulted in the 1960s, culminating in the Six-Day War of June 1967. A broad political treaty between Israel and Jordan signed in 1994 is the only such agreement in the region to lead to recognition of water rights on both sides, though diplomatic tensions around this treaty continue to flare up due to subsequent drought conditions.
Overview
Water politics plays a role in various areas of politics in the Middle East, and it is particularly important in one of the defining features of the region's political landscape. Water issues reflect a central aspect of the nature of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; namely, the original influx of an additional large population mass to a relatively fragile geographical area of land, and the massive expansion of previously existing populations. Concerns over water have significantly helped to shape the Middle East's political development.
International relations and water
Issues relating to water supplies, then, affect international and inter-regional affairs, with disputes over countries' rights and access to water resources most often the cause of tensions in this arena. The contended nature of some water provisions has tended to mean that certain waters become more prone to political conflicts. (Those primarily prone to this in the Middle East and northern Africa are the Nile, Jordan and Tigris-Euphrates rivers.) To secure reliable water access for their populations, states must either have a large water supply in terms of economic availability, or established rights to such supplies. Studies of water in the Middle East have also suggested that, in a sensitive hydrological location, a country's existing surface- and ground-water access should be protected as a first priority if it is to begin to address any water difficulties or shortages. Such measures as these can be seen as being the primary responsibilities of national governments or ruling authorities; and water is therefore closely tied up with statehood and geographical territory in international relations, and with the recognition and rights of nation states as the central actors in this field. The political process and interactions underlying the international relations of water have been characterised as having three stages. These are that a state must go through a process of; firstly claiming its right to water resources, secondly receiving recognition of this right, and finally seeking to attain its entitlement to water in accordance with the recognition of its claim. However, these processes have not always succeeded. In this regard, water politics in the Middle East has been impacted by changes in the international political order and their implications for the area. The involvement of the USSR in Middle Eastern political affairs was seen to have had a constraining effect upon this process, in terms of claims and recognition in the Cold War era. The post–Cold War period, therefore, has since been perceived to offer the opportunity for transforming water politics in the Middle East, in light of the shift it brought about in global political dynamics in the region. This potential, however, was not fulfilled by the end of the decade, with states in the Middle East 'still mainly involved in... asserting water rights over shared waters'. The consequence of this has been that 'non-agreed water sharing is an unavoidable reality in present Middle Eastern international relations', with attendant political problems invariably surfacing.
Middle Eastern river systems The claims over rights to water in the Middle East are centred around the area's three major river systems – the Nile, the River Jordan, and the Tigris-Euphrates river basin. International water agreements in Middle East have been rare, but the situation regarding regional water relations in the three main basins will be explored below.
The Nile
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