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1994-05-02
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<text>
<title>
Egyptian Study Cites Dangers of Arab Water Crisis
</title>
<article>
<hdr>
Joint Publications Research Service, October 11, 1991
Near East/South Asia: Egyptian Study Cites Dangers of Arab
Water Crisis
</hdr>
<body>
<p>[London, Al-Sharq Al-Awsat in Arabic, 28 Jul 91, p. 5]
</p>
<p> The Arab Affairs Committee on Egypt's People's Assembly
(parliament) emphasized in an important study of the Arab water
crisis that the struggle for water is most intense in Africa
and the Arab nations, that the water issue has become more
fraught with danger than petroleum, that the nineties will be
the decade of water, and the future wars in the Arab region will
be over water.
</p>
<p> The parliamentary study explained that Arab nations face a
shortfall of 4 percent in supplying their water needs. Eight
non-Arab countries control more than 85 percent of the sources
of water resources in the Arab nation, not to mention Israel,
which controls a large segment of those resources and hungers to
usurp more water in order to support its huge influx of
emigrants. Experts forecast that Israel will need an additional
800 million cubic meters of water annually by the year 2000.
This may prompt it to wage a war in order to solve its water
problems, especially since the 1967 war yielded Israel 500
million cubic meters of [West] Bank waters and 800 million
cubic meters from the Lebanese rivers it seized by occupying the
south of Lebanon.
</p>
<p> The study added that the volume of water stolen by Israel
from Arab water sources has risen to about 1,300 million cubic
meters annually. Israel also constantly explores for
subterranean water. One of its studies affirms that in the
desert adjacent to the Egyptian-Israeli border, there is an
underground water reservoir of great depth and with an
estimated capacity of some 200 million cubic meters.
</p>
<p> The Arab Affairs Committee of the Consultative Council
revealed in studies of the water crisis in the Arab region that
the 1967 War was significant water-wise in that in enabled
Israel to improve its water situation by occupying the Golan
Heights and the West Bank, thereby making it impossible for the
Arab countries to divert Jordan River tributaries. Cease-fire
lines furthermore allowed Israel to control half the length of
the Yarmuk River, whereas it only controlled a mere 10 kms
prior to the war. This would make any Jordan River development
impossible without Israeli consent.
</p>
<p> As Arab projects came to a halt, the study added, Israel
found a suitable opportunity to solve its water crisis at the
expense of the Arab territories it occupied after the war. The
Israelis diverted the Yarmuk in order to increase the flow into
Lake Tiberius. Israel withdraws as much as 100 million cubic
meters of Yarmuk water, according to Jordanian estimates.
</p>
<p> The parliamentary study of the Arab water crisis also dealt
with the struggle over the Euphrates River, calling upon both
Iraq and Syria to quickly seek an empirical solution by
entering into an international water-sharing agreement that
would guarantee the future needs of both countries. Turkey's
decision to stop Euphrates water from flowing into both Syria
and Iraq for one month was described by the study as one link
in the chain of struggle, and an action that openly and
directly threatens Syrian and Iraqi interests and poses a new
threat to Arab national security as a whole. The report added
that this problem requires Arab action on the national level to
seek a fair and practical solution by approaching Turkey, which
has strong ties with several Arab states, in order to reach
agreement on the volume of Euphrates water it would be willing
to pledge to Syria and Iraq.
</p>
<p> The water study by the Arab Affairs Committee of the
People's Assembly described international relations among
countries of the Nile basin as relatively stable, and added that
despite diligent effort to conserve and control water resources.
Egypt has a constantly rising need for additional sources of
water to serve needed land reclamation projects as well as an
ever growing population. It further added that Egypt as an
essential role to play in Nile basin countries by creating
interest in and awareness of the need for joint cooperation in
developing Nile water sources.
</p>
<p> The study emphasized that Egypt must explore for and develop
alternatives to river water, and must pay attention to
technological research in the fields of seawater desalination;
the utilization of solar energy, which abounds in countries of
the Middle East and Africa; and the possible use of seawater
for irrigation. There is emerging world technology for the
direct irrigation of strategic crops, such as wheat, with salt
water or with treated sewage. The study also called on Egypt to
increase its use of underground water, develop water resources,
exploit and dam flood plains, optimize the utilization of rain
water on the northern coast, and avoid losing river water to the
sea.
</p>
</body>
</article>
</text>