1. Oil and Water How have Humans interacted with the Environment in Southwest Asia?

2. What about water?
Water is a scarce resource – to the people in SW Asia it is more valuable than oil
To increase and control water dams are being built in SW Asia
At least 793 large dams provide irrigation and flood control
Turkey has the most reservoirs, followed by Iran, Syria, and Saudi Arabia.

4. Southeast Anatolia Project
Massive plan calling for 22 dams and 19 hydroelectric plants strung along the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers
Intended to provide almost one-quarter of that country's electric power.
The Anatolian Peninsula is the location of what country?
Turkey

6. Syria and Iraq Concerns
Syria and Iraq rely on the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers for water
The Turkish government is systematically damming up those rivers
Turkish officials have said repeatedly that they will not restrict the flow of the river once their reservoirs are filled
The two downstream countries fear they will be subject to blackmail by Turkey whenever their national policies conflict.

8. “The next war in the Near East will not be about politics, but over water," former UN Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali once warned an American think tank. "Washington does not take this threat seriously because everything in the U.S. relates to oil."

9. Irrigation & other water technology
Countries along the Tigris, Euphrates, Diyala, and Jordan Rivers depend on the waters for irrigation of their crops
Fossil water is pumped from aquifers and has been there a long time – not enough rain to replace what is taken
Drip Irrigation uses the least amount of water because it waters just the root systems
Also use canals to carry water to crops
Desalinization removes salt from sea water
Water is too salty to drink or use for irrigation
Mostly used for sewage
Very expensive

12. Older methods of irrigation
Qanat tunnels: Built by muganni (quanat diggers)
Underground and lined by bricks
Slope gently and use gravity to help move the water
Usually begin at the base of a mountain and can run 20 – 30 miles

16. Noria system: Uses a water wheel
Can be run by water power or animal power
Wheel lifts the water and pours it into a ditch/channel to be transported to the fields

17. Noria Irrigation System

18. The National Water Carrier of Israel or המוביל הארצי
Main task is to transfer water from the Sea of Galilee in the north of the country to the center and arid south or Negev region
To enable efficient use of water and regulation of the water supply in the country.
The National Water Carrier connects the Sea of Galilee with Israel's water system.

19. The National Water Carrier of Israel
Completed and functioning by 1964
Combination of underground pipelines, open canals, interim reservoirs and tunnels
Water from Lake Kinneret, located 220 meters below sea level, is pumped to an elevation of about 152 meters above sea level
Water flows to the coastal region, and is pumped to the Negev Desert

22. Problems
The diversion of water from the Jordan River has been a source of tension between Israel and Syria and Jordan
In 1964, Syria attempted construction of a Headwater Diversion Plan to block the flow of water into the Sea of Galilee
Israel attacked the project in 1965 which increased regional tensions ending in the 1967 Six Day War
Israel won this war and now occupies the Golan Heights from which water resources flow into the Sea of Galilee.
Israel has a treaty with Jordan agreeing to supply them with 50 million cubic meters of water annually.

24. Oil & Natural Gas SW Asia is rich in oil and natural gas
Created millions of years ago from plants and animals that lived in an ancient sea
Their remains mixed with sand and mud and were transformed into oil by pressure and heat
They are non-renewable energy sources

25. How is it transported? Crude oil is removed from the earth by drilling
It is moved by pipeline to refineries or ports
In the Refinery it is processed into gasoline, heating oil or other products
Occasionally oil is spilled on land or from tankers (ships) into water
1991 – tankers and storage facilities in Kuwait were blown up – 240,000,000 gallons spilled
1989 – Exxon Valdez spilled 11,000,000 gallons of oil
2010 – BP oil well ruptures contaminating the Gulf coast of the U.S. estimated 3,377,959 gallons spilled