Forum Moves Water Higher Up Global Priority List

AP Photo
24 months ago
Mexico's Environmental Secretary Jose Luis Luege Tamargo, second right, talks as Istanbul Mayor Kadir Topbas, left, Turkey's Energy Minister Hilmi Guler, second left, and Loic Fauchon, president of the non-governmental group the World Water Council, right, applaud during a ceremony at the 5th World Water Forum launch meeting in Istanbul, Turkey, Tuesday, March 20, 2007. Turkey officially launched preparations to host the fifth World Water Forum in 2009, a major conference where dozens of countries will discuss ways to better manage the water resources around the world. Turkey took over the chair of the conference in a ceremony from Mexico, which hosted the fourth forum last year when participants called for solutions to shortages and inequalities in the most basic of commodities.

...Rivers shared by neighboring countries provide an estimated 60 percent of the world's freshwater. There are 260 international river basins in the world, which cover nearly half of the Earth's surface and are home to 40 percent of the world's population....

One of the reasons Iraq will never fall into complete chaos and increased threat to the nations of its region or the USA, is because the issues facing it will be incredibly important to the survival of its people. The war is a 'focus' because of the violence itself brings to Iraq, but, once the USA is gone from its turbulence the country will still have enormous problems to handle with little time for war.

Turkey, Syria cooperate on water front (click here)

With water in the Middle East being depleted and demand growing fast, Turkey and Syria have put their differences aside and begun findings ways to share water equitably through innovative projects.

One project both countries agreed in principle to develop is the Asi Friendship Dam, to be built on the Asi (Orontes) River on the border between Syria and Turkey. The Asi River originates in Syria and flows through Turkey's Hatay province before spilling into the Mediterranean Sea.
A Turkish team of technical experts will go to Syria this weekend to start work on mapping, with feasibility studies soon to follow, said sources from the State Waterworks Authority (DSİ) who requested to remain anonymous....