Water in the Middle East

Introduction

Water has always been scarce in the Arab world, but growing populations place ever-increasing demands on the limited resources.Competing claims over water rights can lead to disputes between countries or between consumers.

The wealthier Arab countries can meet some of their needs by desalinating seawater. Meanwhile others drill ever-deeper wells which in time may only make the problem worse.

One new and important element in this debate is the concept of "virtual water". Growing wheat, for example, takes a lot of water. By importing wheat and concentrating on crops which require less water, a country can acquire "virtual water" and use existing resources more efficiently.

Regional overview

Water resources in the Middle East
(World Bank)

Aquastat
General overview of the water situation in the Middle East (FAO)

Urban water and sanitation
(World Bank)

Liquid assets
For the Middle East, water has always been a politically sensitive issue, linked as it is food production. (The Guardian, 25 July, 2001)

Humanitarian hydro-aid: Is water scarcity drowning the Mideast?
Hussein Amery, Al Arabiya, 4 July 2014

Water resources issues in the Arab states region
Alain Marcoux, FAO. April 1996

Water Diplomacy in the Middle East
Mostafa Dolatyar, University of Newcastle, 2000

Water Resources in the Middle East: a bibliography
Dag Hammarskjold Library, UN

'Virtual Water': A long term solution for water short Middle Eastern Economies?
Tony Allan, SOAS, London, 1997. (PDF)

Watersheds and Problemsheds
Explaining the absence of armed conflict over water in the Middle East. By Tony Allen. MERIA Journal (Vol 2, No. 1) March 1998

Water Wars: a lecture
Adel Darwish. June, 1994

Nile Basin

Nile river (Medea)

The Nile Basin
Evolving approaches to Nile waters management, by Tony Allan, SOAS, London, 1999. (PDF)

The Nile Basin
A Cascao, SOAS 2005. (PDF)

The River Nile, the life of Egypt
Dr. Salah Hassanein

The Nile River Dispute
Inventory of Conflict and Environment

Drought risk monitoring for the Sudan
Alemayehu Kassa, SOAS 1999. (PDF)

The Egyptian hydro-hegemony
Carles A, 2007. SOAS 2007. (PDF)

Resisting Hegemony on the Nile
Cascão A.E. 2007. SOAS 2007. (PDF)

Sudan's 'Midstream Doctrine'
Saleh, S.M.K. 2007. SOAS 2007. (PDF)

Palestine/Israel

Water wars
Paul Welsh looks at water in Israel (BBC, 15 March, 2000)

Water wars and peace
Paul Adams (BBC, 9 January, 2000)

Israeli water use and export
(US Trade and Environment Database)

Israel and water in the framework of the Arab-Israeli conflict
J A Allan, SOAS 1999. (PDF)

The quality and sustainability of the water resources available to Arab villages to the west of the divide in the southern West Bank
D S Scarpa, SOAS (PDF)

Israel's hydro-hegemony
S Attili, SOAS 2005. (PDF)

Hegemony and counter-gegemony over shared aquifers
The Palestinian Experience. Messerschmid, C. 2007. SOAS 2007. (PDF)

Definition of Israel's water problem, or, water as a metaphor
Dan Zavlasky, June 2000

Water and conflict in the Gaza Strip
Stephanie Goeller, December 1997 (Inventory of Conflict and Environment)

Israel's appropriation of Arab waters: an obstacle to peace
Ronald Bleier. Middle East Labor Bulletin, Spring 1994

Water systems in Jerusalem
Historical information about the city's ancient water supplies (Jerusalem Mosaic)

Efficient use of limited water resources: making Israel a model state
(BESA Center for Strategic Studies, Bar-Ilan University)

An assessment of irrigation efficiency in the Palestinian West Bank
Faten Al-Juneidi and Jad Isaac. Arij (PDF)

Approaches to the legal aspects of the conflict on water rights in Palestine/Israel
Jonathan Kuttab and Jad Ishaq. Arij 1994 (PDF)

A sober approach to the water crisis in the Middle East
Jad Isaac. Arij 1995 (PDF)

Preliminary evaluation of the aquaculture potential in Palestine
Leonardo M. Hosh. Masters Thesis; International Agricultural Development, ARIJ 1995 (PDF)

Roots of the water conflict in the MiddleEast
Leonardo Hosh and Jad Isaac. Arij 1992 (PDF)

Core issues of the Palestinian-Israeli water dispute
Jad Isaac. Arij 1994 (PDF)

Towards a Palestinian water policy
Walid Sabbah and Jad Isaac. Arij 1995 (PDF)

An evaluation of water resourcesmanagement in the Ramallah district
Walid Sabbah and Jad Isaac. Arij 1996 (PDF)

Dryland farming in Palestine
Arij 1994 (PDF)

The water conflicts in the Middle East from a Palestinianperspective
Arij 1996 (PDF)

Efficiency of irrigated agriculture in the West Bank
Jad Isaac, Faten Al-Juneidi, Walid Sabbah and Moh'd Abu Amriyeh. Arij 1997 (PDF)

Jordan Basin

Jordan river (Medea)

The Jordan river dispute
(Inventory of Conflict and Environment)

Water disputes in the Jordan basin region
Stephen Libiszewski (Center for Security Policy and Conflict Research; Berne: Swiss Peace Foundation. August 1994)

The Jordan river basin: explaining interstate water co-operation through regime theory
Anders Jägerskog, SOAS 2001

The sanctioned discourse - A crucial factor for understanding water policy in the Jordan River Basin
Anders Jägerskog, SOAS 2002

Israel-Jordan Peace Treaty
Annexe dealing with water issues

Hydro-Peace in the Middle East: Why no Water Wars? A Case Study of the Jordan River Basin
J A Allan, SOAS 2002 (PDF)

Why states cooperate over shared water: The water negotiations in the Jordan River Basin
Anders Jägerskog, SOAS 2003. (PDF)

Water and the Jordan River co-riparians: from zero-sum to positive sum game
D Philips, S Attilli, S McCaffrey and J Murray, SOAS 2005. (PDF)

Tigris/Euphrates

Euphrates river (Medea)

Tigris river (Medea)

The Tigris-Euphrates river dispute
Inventory of Conflict and Environment

The Euphrates river: the politics of water
Rick Francona, November 1999

Iran-Iraq War and waterway claims
Inventory of Conflict and Environment

One river's journey through troubled times
The Guardian, 23 August, 2003

The household water crisis in Syria's Greater Damascus region
Elie Elhadj, SOAS 2004 (PDF)

Arabian Peninsula

Ministry of Agriculture and Water
Saudi Arabia

Camels don't fly, deserts don't bloom
An assessment of Saudi Arabia's experiment in desert agriculture. By Elie Elhadj, SOAS 2004 (PDF)

Household water and sanitation services in Saudi Arabia
An analysis of economic, political and ecological issues. By Elie Elhadj, SOAS 2004 (PDF)

The securitisation of the Disi aquifer: a silent conflict between Jordan and Saudi Arabia
F Greco, SOAS 2005. (PDF)

Water demand management, natural resource reconstruction and traditional value systems
A case study from Yemen, by G Lichtenthäler and A R Turton, SOAS, London, 1999. (PDF)

Monitoring qat with earth observation data and geographic information system techniques
A study in the region of Jabal Sabir, Ta'izz, Yemen. By K Leung, SOAS, London, 1999. (PDF)

Responses to water scarcity
Social adaptive capacity and the role of environmental information - a case study from Ta'iz, Yemen. By Y Mohieldeen, SOAS, London, 1999. (PDF)

Assorted articles

Water in international systems
A risk society analysis of regional problemsheds and global hydrologies, by J A Allan, SOAS 1999. (PDF)

Virtual Water
A long-term solution for water-short Middle Eastern economies? by J A Allan, SOAS 1997. (PDF)

Precipitation, people, pipelines and power
Towards a 'virtual water' based political ecology discourse, by A R Turton, SOAS 1999. (PDF)

Water and state sovereignty
The hydropolitical challenge for states in arid regions, by A R Turton, SOAS 1999. (PDF)

Water scarcity and social stability
Towards a deeper understanding of key concepts needed to manage water scarcity in developing countries, by A R Turton and L Ohlsson, SOAS 1999. (PDF)

Water scarcity and social adaptive capacity
Towards an understanding of the social dynamics of managing water scarcity in developing countries, by A R Turton, SOAS, London, 1999. (PDF)

Middle Eastern hydropolitics
Interpreting constructed knowledge - a review article by J A Allan, SOAS 1999. (PDF)

Great Man-Made River
The Libyan project explained

Water issues of the Golan Heights
Golan Heights Information Server - an Israeli view

Global systems ameliorate local droughts: water, food and trade
by J A Allan, SOAS 1999 (PDF)

Financing major water projects in the poorest economies
Elie Elhadj, SOAS 2001 (PDF)

Islamic finance to aid water utilities
Elie Elhadj, SOAS 2001 (PDF)

The turning of a screw
Social resource scarcity as a bottle-neck in adaptation to water scarcity, by Leif Ohlsson and A R Turton, SOAS 1999. (PDF)

The Regional Water Balance Statement
A new tool for water resources planning, by S Merrett, SOAS. (PDF)

Policy transformation and implementation in the water sector in Lebanon: the role of politics
Emmanuelle Kunigk, SOAS 1998/99 (PDF)

Water stressed regions: the Middle East and Southern Africa - global solutions
SJobson, SOAS 1999 (PDF)

Closing a water resource; some policy considerations
by Brian and Lynne Chatterton
(Former Minister of Agriculture of South Australia and former official of the Government of South Australia) (PDF)

Water scarcity and food imports
An empirical Iinvestigation of the ‘Virtual Water’ hypothesis in the MENA region. By H Hakimian, SOAS 2003. (PDF)

Water transfer versus desalination in North Africa
Saad A. Alghariani, SOAS 2003. (PDF)

Water websites

SOAS Water Issues Group
(School of Oriental & African Studies, University of London). List of published papers is here.

Middle East Water Information Network
(University of Pennsylvania)

Water in the Middle East
Compilation of links (Columbia University)

Water and conflict
Focusing on the role of water in conflict and co-operation (mainly on the Israel/Palestine and the Jordan basin)

MERIA Research Guide
Middle East water issues

Water Demand Management Forum
Cairo

Middle East Desalination Research Center

World Water Council

Global Water Partnership