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Countries across the Middle East are facing a bleak future of declining rainfall, diminishing surface- and groundwater supplies, and increasing desertification.
Since 1998, the region has faced the worst drought conditions in 900 years; it is home to 10 of the 17 countries that are currently facing ‘extremely high’ water stress. Soaring temperatures across the region—average summer temperatures are predicted to rise by 4°C by 2050 even if global rises are limited to 2°C—are increasing evaporation of surface water, forcing an over-reliance on aquifers and groundwater supplies that are already at risk of over-exploitation.
Between 2003 and 2010, parts of Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran along the Tigris and Euphrates river basins lost 144 cubic kilometres of total stored freshwater; 60% of that loss was attributed to the pumping of groundwater from underground reservoirs.
Given this backdrop, it’s alarming that the impact of the Middle East’s climatic conditions on water supplies is being exacerbated by dam projects that will worsen the already acute water stress and land degradation that is jeopardising agriculture across the region.
Turkey’s Southeastern Anatolia Project is one of the largest and most controversial dam-building programs globally. Twenty-two dams are slated to be constructed along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers near Turkey’s borders with Syria and Iraq. The project has attracted the ire of countries across the Middle East since its inception because of the impact it will have on critical water supplies in Turkey’s southern neighbours....
