The Syrian Al-Ba’ath daily, the official paper of the country's ruling Ba’ath party, featured an article Thursday addressing concerns over a shortage in drinking water in the province of Damascus. The article indicates low rainfall has caused a steady drop in water levels in the Damascus basin, which could pose a problem during the hotter dryer months of the approaching summer.
While the situation has caught the attention of the Syrian government, the country's Minister of Housing and Development does not feel that it will reach “crisis” levels. However, he did stress the need for water consumption to be monitored, while other measures are also being taken by the country's water establishment to help ensure the availability of water. Some of these measures received previous media coverage by Syria's state-run SANA news agency earlier this month in reports accessible here and here, which also reassure the public that enough water will be available.
What's interesting about this is that Syria's immediate water concerns coincidentally come as indirect peace talks are taking place between the Arab state and Israel via Turkey. While the Syrian government and its media are downplaying the severity of the water shortage, the issue has received a noticeable amount of coverage, which, in my opinion, begs one to ask how water could play into these talks.
What makes water relevant to the future of peace between Syria and Israel? The answer is the Golan Heights. In addition to being a key strategic piece of territory in military terms, the territory, lost by Syria as a result of Israel's victory in the ’67 war, also provides access to key supplies of fresh water in the region. This includes the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee, which Israel currently depends on greatly for its own water supply, as well as other springs and rivers in and around the Golan that feed into the sea and the Jordan River. In fact, the two countries skirmished over water resources in the area of the Golan even before the ’67 war (i.e. the Baniyas River conflict in ’65).
Subsequently, in previous talks Syria has consistently voiced its desire to control the eastern shore of the Galilee as part of any deal on the Golan, which would give them access to that primary water supply. Thus, given this history and Syria's current concern over water, will water issues, as they pertain to the nearby Golan, take on added importance in the Turkish-mediated talks?
