Syria's Water War

Syria, like Israel, has been affected by drought during the last decade. One million inhabitants of eastern Syria have lost their livelihoods and face extreme hardship and they live on a diet consisting of bread and sugared tea. The area is adjacent to Turkey and the nearest water sources are the Euphrates and the Tigris, dominated by upstream Turkey. Turkish foreign policy is "No water concessions". In 1988 the late President Turgut Ozal said: "We don't tell Arabs what to do with their oil, so we don't accept any suggestion from them about what to do with our water." He may have not been aware of the fact that Syria has no oil.

The dams built by Turkey upstream on the Euphrates have degraded the quality of the water reaching Syria. It has high salinity and causes erosion since it runs faster after being deprived of silt. Turkey says it has nothing to discuss.

In 1989 Turkey turned off the water flow to Syria and Iraq but two weeks later resumed it, fearing that Syria and Iraq would find a common cause to start a war.