Conflict over international river basin waters: A study to analyze the phenomenon of conflict

Abstract

Water is of great importance in the lives of peoples and other living beings, as its existence is linked to the presence of water, and disappears when it is absent. The Holy Quran has expressed the importance of water in the best way, as God Almighty said in His Holy Book [And We made from water every living thing (Surat Al-Baqarah: verse 30)] and God Almighty said: Or do we see the earth lifeless, but when We send down upon it water, it quivers and swells and grows [abundantly] of every beautiful pair? (Surat Al-Hajj: verse 15). The most advanced ancient civilizations were established on river basins, such as the Babylonian and Egyptian civilizations... and others, as water had a great impact on the emergence of these civilizations and their progress over a long period of time compared to other nations that were contemporaries. In the modern era, the need for water has become much greater than in ancient times due to the multiplicity and diversity of its uses, due to the increase in the world's population, and the industrial and technical progress that humanity is witnessing at the present time, compared to previous eras, which has made water a rare or limited resource, especially in societies characterized by arid climates, as most developing countries are witnessing competition or conflict over the waters of their international river basins today. Many of the wars that broke out in the recent past, such as the Indo-Pakistani war, the Iran-Iraq war, or the Arab-Israeli conflict in part... and others, are mostly due to the conflict over the waters of international river basins. Regarding the waters of the Euphrates River Basin, the countries of this basin did not suffer from a shortage in their water resources until the seventh decade of the previous century. However, the development that occurred in the countries of the basin, especially in the agricultural and industrial fields and their expansion due to population growth, made the issue of redistributing and exploiting waters in accordance with the rules of international law of particular importance. The economic and social progress witnessed by the countries of the Euphrates Basin and what this requires in terms of an increasing need for water on the one hand, and the limited waters of the basin on the other hand, created a kind of undirected competition to benefit from the waters of the aforementioned river by building dams, reservoirs and giant irrigation projects to expand the area of ​​agricultural land and generate electricity.