Countries participating in the World Water Forum discussed Turkey’s experience in resolving its water crisis with its neighbors, extracting lessons to be applied in order to prevent possible water wars among the nations of Central Asia over limited water resources. Environment and Forestry Minister Veysel Eroğlu spoke about how Turkey had begun to solve its problems in terms of sharing water resources with neighboring countries.There are 214 water sources in the world that flow through more than one country. Sixty-nine of them are in the Americas, 57 are in Africa, 48 are in Europe and 40 in Asia. Nations with water sources flowing through them and at least one neighboring country number 145. Forty percent of the world population has to share their water with citizens of at least one other country. This obligation to share water resources, combined with increased drought due to global warming is increasing the tension between water-sharing countries daily. The first big water wars are expected to take place among the nations of Central Asia, as their diplomatic relations are underdeveloped and they have been severely affected by global warming.
Turkey, with its serious water-sharing problems with Syria and Iraq due to the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers, which begin in Turkey and flow to the Shatt al-Arab via Syria and Iraq, settled the problems by a launching a new strategy to discuss and solve the water problem with the participation of all parties. The three countries -- Turkey, Iraq and Syria -- began scientific studies to form a water institute at Turkey’s Atatürk Dam, built on the Euphrates River, to resolve the water-sharing problems.
During the World Water Forum, Turkish Environment and Forestry Minster Eroğlu spoke about the agreement, the process for which was initiated by Turkey, to resolve the problems with its neighbors and added that third-party countries, which may have their own interests in this water problem, should not be included in the multilateral talks among countries to share water resources.
The topics of climate change in Central Asia and water resources management and capacity development were covered in the forum, where Turkey, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Iran were represented at the ministerial level. There are major problems between Central Asian countries over cross-border sources of water; Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Tajikistan have an acute problem over the use of water and land ownership at Ferghana. This problem escalates into armed conflict from time to time, and resolution of the issue is complicated by the legacy of Soviet Russian migration policies: all Central Asian countries are home to ethnic minorities from neighboring nations. If the water-sharing problems among these Central Asian countries is not solved, major conflicts are in order, Central Asia experts say.
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