Turkey's Water Diplomacy: Analysis of Its Foundations, Challenges and Prospects by Aysegül Kibaroglu

Author:Aysegül Kibaroglu [Kibaroglu, Aysegül]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Political Science, International Relations, Diplomacy, Public Policy, Environmental Policy, Geopolitics
ISBN: 9781783088133
Google: dIogEAAAQBAJ
Publisher: Anthem Press
Published: 2021-02-15T04:35:27+00:00

Orontes River Basin

The transboundary water politics in the Orontes basin involve a number of entrenched complexities. For decades, Syria and Turkey have held starkly divergent views over the use and management of the waters of this river basin. However, in the first decade of 2000s, a high level of rapprochement and political will enabled a number of initiatives for transboundary water cooperation to take root. A series of Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) were signed between Syria and Turkey over transboundary water resource management, including one on building a joint dam on the Orontes River along the boundary between the two countries. Yet, since the eruption of conflict in Syria, the then proposed joint dam (The Friendship Dam) project came to a halt, while Turkey–Syria relations deteriorated across all domains.

The Orontes River (known in Turkish as ‘Asi Nehri’, in Arabic as ‘Nahr-al Asi’) originates in the northern Bekaa region of Lebanon. The Orontes is the only river in West Asia which has a northward flow, discharging west into the Mediterranean Sea (UN-ESCWA and BGR 2013). The Orontes enters Syrian territory northeast of the town of Hermel (Lebanon) and passes through the cities of Homs and Hamah. It then crosses the fertile region of Al-Ghab where intensive irrigation systems have been established and constitutes 56 km of the Syrian-Turkish border before entering into Turkey, where it turns southwest passing through Antakya, and discharging into the Mediterranean Sea near Samandag, in Turkey’s Hatay province (Korkmaz and Karatas 2009).

Data concerning the total length and catchment area of the Orontes varies according to sources. Most sources provide figures in the range of 448–571 km. One local study, conducted using satellite images at an altitude of 2,000 m, calculated the total length as 556 km, 40 km of which are in Lebanon, 366 km in Syria and 98 km in Turkey (Korkmaz and Karatas 2009). The waterway has a catchment area of 24,745 km² (Comair et al. 2013), with two main tributaries: the Afrin River, larger in terms of water flow, and the Karasu. Originating in Kartal Mountains in Turkey, the Afrin River first crosses into Syrian territory, passing through the town of Afrin, before re-entering Turkey and draining into Amik Lake. The Karasu River runs almost entirely through Turkey, except forming a small section that runs along the Turkish-Syrian border (Kibaroglu and Sümer 2016).

The combined mean annual discharge potential of the Orontes River, including its tributaries, is estimated at 2.4–2.8 billion m3 (Comair et al. 2013). An earlier study by the DSI gives the annual discharge as 3.4 billion m3 (DSI 1958). Thus, the annual water potential of the Orontes River system has fallen considerably over the last several decades (Kibaroglu and Sümer 2015). The average annual flow potential at the point of entry onto Turkish soil is estimated at 1.4 billion m3 for the Orontes, 0.6 billion m3 for the Afrin and 0.4 billion m3 for the Karasu (Scheumann et al. 2011). However, during the summer months, the Orontes dries up before reaching Turkey due to extensive water use in Syria’s Al-Ghab region (Baran et al.

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