WATER WARS: FROM SYRIA TO SAN FRANCISCO

Humans wage wars over natural resources. Control of resources is linked to power. (Conde-Zambada) It’s no surprise that water, as the most precious of these, would be the cause of conflicts throughout human history.

 

The first documented water war took place in Mesopotamia 4500 years ago. (Hammer) The Tigris River was at the center of this war between Umma and Lagash. (Hammer) When the former’s king “drained an irrigation canal leading from the Tigris”, Enannatum, the ruler of Lagash, clashed with Umma’s soldiers over rights to water, the secret to human life, much less civilization. (Hammer) The basin has not ceased to be a locus of water conflict, and continues to be to the present day.

 

Water wars are caused by drought and population growth. (Conde-Zambada) The needs of societies can lead to conflict over that which can satiate this need. (Conde-Zambada) This principle holds up even though the players in water conflict might change.

 

The Tigris-Euphrates basin, “comprising Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran,” is facing a more serious drought than anywhere on earth other than the northern regions of India. (Hammler) Iraqi tribes have been feuding over water rights in the governmental vacuum that has existed since the US’s invasion of that country in 2003. (Hammler) The Syrian civil war, which is still raging, is believed to have been sparked by angry farmers who were forced to move to urban centers because their water sources had dried up. (Hammler)

 

Tensions between the four above-mentioned countries have been rising since the drought set in. (Hammler) Turkey, part of NATO, has used its leverage as a strong and pro-western power to take more than its fair share of water from surrounding regions. (Conde-Zambada) Instability in Syria and Iraq and the emergence of ISIL has been blamed for the illegal maintenance and installation of dams which threaten the balance of water-distribution in the region.  (Conde-Zambada)

 

All of these water disputes have been armed and violent. However, water wars can play out in the legal realm, and can be civic. Water disputes are not limited geographically or beholden to only poor, second- and third- world countries. California has been the center of a water war for decades.

 

Northern Californians have long resented the southern half of the state for using up to 75% of the water in the state, which Southerners source from the North’s rivers and lakes. (Wilson) While 65% of the population lives in southern California, most of the water being used there goes towards wasteful agriculture being operated in unsuitable and unsustainable regions that are increasingly parched as the drought continues. (Wilson) Larry Wilson’s op-ed in the SGV Tribune, a paper coming situated in the south of the state, is a perfect example of the animosity that exists between North and South California when it comes to water. He asserts:

 

“You know how those Bay Area snobs are always painting us as profligate wasters of the precious H20? Turns out they should be looking at their own reflections in the sweet little backyard pond first. Thanks to xeriscaping our yards, low-flow showers and faucets, efficient washing machines and toilets, we’re way more frugal than they are.”

It is interesting that the focus of his argument is individual users of water, when large agriculture is to blame. Agriculture accounts for only 2% of California’s annual GDP, yet used 80% of the state’s annual water flow. (Rhodes Final Project, see “Political Economy” page for link to full article) Perhaps the reason that water conflict in the Middle East has turned violent is that people rely on agriculture for their livelihood. This is not the case for most in California. While Califonian’s argue over who takes the shortest showers, Middle Easterners kill each other. Perhaps, though, the solution to both could be the same. It might be possible to engineer markets that deliver agricultural goods and food to drought stricken areas from water-rich ones such as Russia and the Mid-West of the US. That way, everyone would have enough to drink, and wasteful agriculture will become a thing of the past.

 

Is a Lack of Water to Blame for the Conflict in Syria?,  Joshua Hammer

 

Plumbing the civil water wars between Southern and Northern California, Larry Wilson

 

Lecture on Water Wars, Dr Gilberto Conde-Zambada