Water Wars
Images of battles and terror from the beginning of the eighties onwards have burnt into my mind. Daily, evening news on television showed tanks rolling, tracks creaking and squeaking, clouds of sand and dust rising to the sky behind. There were people in casual clothes throwing stones at well-armed soldiers, cars burning in the streets. Their eyes were filled with anger and desperation, with sorrow. Still today, saddeningly, these images continue to fill the news, these unfortunate violent events take place. Relatively often the common factor in the imagery is this: the war-torn places are arid, there is no fresh water in sight.
Estimates state that the countries of the Middle-East are facing an increasingly difficult water-scarcity problem. Agriculture and urban growth are demanding more water. So, it is an understandable – and often omitted - fact that the unstable situation in Middle-East has been to a large proportion ignited by control over water resources. Several battles have been fought over areas which are strategically important in controlling freshwater flows.
Israel is one of the world’s countries having a very difficult fresh water situation. It is located near a desert. Ben Gudion, the first Israeli prime minister, presented an aspiration to “make the desert bloom”. According to him, water is the lifeblood of the system, “a prerequisite for a new society”. Israel has about 200 kilometers of Mediterranean sea coastline - salinated ocean water is in abundance. However, desalinating sea water in order to get drinkable fresh water is – at least currently - an extremely expensive process. To a very high extent, the country is dependent on seasonal rainfall for its water supply. To improve the water situation and enable efficient water use and regulation, a decision was made to construct National Water Carrier. Detailed planning for the carrier started in 1948, when Israel gained independence. Actual construction started in 1956 and lasted eight years, to 1964. Through its length of 130 kilometers, water is transferred from rainy northern Israel to drier central and southern parts of the country. The carrier is crossing multiple heights of land and different types of terrain - planning and building of the system was a demanding task. Pumping stations, tunnels, reservoirs and aqueducts are all utilized.
A year after completion of Israel’s National Water Carrier, the Arab countries started building Headwater Diversion Plan. The Arab’s Diversion Plan would turn the water flow from Israel’s Sea of Galilee, to dams and rivers of Syria, Lebanon and Jordan instead. The Diversion Plan would have reduced the water capacity to Israel by about 35 per cent. Israel did not accept the impending situation and attacked the Syrian diversion sites in 1965. This and other serious incidents caused the tension in Middle East to increase to a point of war. Eventually in 1967, Egypt, Jordan and Syria fought a Six-Day War against Israel.
Ariel Sharon, Prime Minister of Israel, has commented on the reasons of the Six-Day War: “People generally regard 5th of June 1967 as the day the Six-Day War began. That is the official date. But, in reality, it started two-and-a-half years earlier, on the day Israel decided to act against the diversion of the Jordan.”
Several leaders in Middle East have underlined the importance of water. United Nations Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali warned bluntly that the next war in the area will be over water. Former King Hussein of Jordan identified water as the only reason that might lead him to war with the Jewish state. “The next Middle East war would be over dwindling water supplies”, President Gaddafi of Libya warned in 1999. Muhammad Anwar al-Sadat, President of Egypt, said in 1979: “The only matter that could take Egypt to war again is water.” In the previous year, he had both signed a peace treaty and received a Nobel Peace Prize together with Menachem Begin, Israeli prime minister.
In 2006, water played an additional role in a war between Israel and Lebanon. In the August of that year, after over a month of fighting and launching missiles, after the armed forces have achieved seemingly random pain and destruction, cease-fire between Lebanon and Israel began. Israeli troops were returning to their homeland from south Lebanon. Some of them were embittered and criticized their own army. Most of the surprises were not given by the enemy but their own side instead, they commented. They were having shortages of food, water, ammunition and other supplies. Their equipment was faulty and outdated. Communications between platoons were not always feasible - they had a lack of operable radio transceivers. Two operations were cancelled because Israeli Defence Forces did not have water to take with them. On Yediot Ahronot, Israel’s largest newspaper, a soldier reported that thirsty troops threw chlorine tablets into filthy water in sheep and cow troughs. Canteens were taken from dead guerrillas. “When you’re thirsty and have to keep fighting, you don’t think a lot, and there is no time to feel disgusted,” the unidentified soldier told to the newspaper. Mindless behaviour prevails without water.
Adel Darwish and John Bulloch authored a book titled “Water Wars”. During the research for the book, they discovered that “water was the hidden agenda for past conflicts and one major obstacle to reach a lasting and final settlement in the region”. Jeffrey Sachs, the Harvard professor and Earth Institute director, also sees a causal relation between the shortage of fresh water and violent behaviour. Long dry periods lead to violence. According to Sachs, in western Sudan, the growth of population and months of dry climate resulted in violent killings of over 250 000 people.
Leaders of the world, do not respond and control with bombs and bullets. Human beings and other living things do not run on shreds of metal. Instead of building weapons, use the metal and machinery and manpower to manufacture reverse osmosis and other desalination systems. Use the military research and development resources for improving the processes of removing salt from sea water. Replace turrets with water pumps. Set your troops target to generate clear drinkable water, resulting in nutritious food. Peace and people’s respect will come in return.
