Environment – Middle East

Teaching About Water Scarcity in the Middle East and Worldwide

On June 4, 2019 the Middle East Studies Center conducted sessions on water scarcity and the role of water in the Middle East. Dr. Faisal Rifai, Executive Director of the Euphrates Tigris Initiative for Cooperation (ETIC), and retired Professor of Hydraulic Engineering, Aleppo University, presented on environmental, cultural, political dimensions of water management and transboundary water issues.  Dr. Melinda McClimans, Assistant Director of the Middle East Studies Center, presented resources for translating the information into the classroom and facilitated a discussion session.  A summary of the session and the teacher’s teaching ideas are shared on this post.

The Middle East conducted an intensive industrialization effort starting with the end of World War One and the Mandate System implemented by European countries in the region. Oil was also being discovered all over region at that time and the development of an energy production economy (often in coordination with European countries and/or the U.S.).  Water infrastructure, and the building of dams in particular, central to that effort and the creation of national boundaries created tensions between the countries of the Middle East, and crises for many of the people in the Middle East which remain to this day. This page will provide resources for teaching about how global issues of industrial pollution, energy production, and water shortages affect the Middle East in particular. We also posit that in studying how these issues play out in the Middle East, solutions to these problems may be found which possess global application potential.

There is a stereotype the the Middle East is all desert and that’s why there’s scarcity, but countries like Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Israel, and Egypt have rivers and lakes to supply their water. The Tigris and Euphrates rivers originate in the Taurus mountains of southeastern Turkey where they are fed with alpine snows, lakes and rains. From there they diverge and run south through the arid plains of Syria and Iraq before converging again and flowing into the Persian Gulf, with some contribution from tributaries originating in Iran. The Tigris runs for 1,850 kilometers, or 1,150 miles, whereas the Euphrates river runs for 2,800 kilometers, or 1,740 miles. The Tigris-Euphrates river basin covers an area of some 35,600 square kilometers, or 13,700 square miles, and comprises the riparian countries of Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran. “Riparian” simply means that they are situated on the banks of the aforementioned rivers.
The Karacaöen Reservoir in the Taurus mountains of Turkey. Image of Karacaöen Reservoir. Duesentrieb 17 November 2006. CC BY-SA 3.0. Wikimedia Commons

The Karacaöen Reservoir in the Taurus mountains of Turkey.
Image of Karacaöen Reservoir.
Duesentrieb 17 November 2006. CC BY-SA 3.0. Wikimedia Commons