Within the scope of Turkey’s negotiations with the EU on the environment chapter, ongoing since Dec. 21, 2009, Turkey is required to integrate the EU Water Framework Directive into its water-related policies, regulations and laws due to its candidate status. There are two main processes of harmonization in the directive..

ORSAM Water Bulletin conveys the recent developments in the Middle East's water agenda instantly. More on events, news, politics, projects, environment, climate change, neighbourhoods, cooperation, disputes and scarcity is in this bulletin.

Due to the unstable situation of Afghanistan for many years, it remains behind in the development of water resources as in for the other issues. It is located in the middle of the Eurasian continent and its surface area is 652 thousand square kilometres. Its neighbours are Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Iran, Pakistan and China.

Along with the water shortage in Iraq, the risk of destruction of the wetlands located in the south of Iraq has stayed on the agenda for a long time. With their socio-cultural and environmental importance, the Basra Marshes -formerly known as the Mesopotamian Marshes- are the largest wetlands of the Middle East.

The main goal of the EU Water Framework Directive, of which the draft works were prepared by Germany and the Netherlands and came into force on December 2000, aims for 'good status' for all ground and surface waters in the EU.

Two important rivers in the Aral Sea basin and the problems on transboundary water between the countries where those rivers flow into are one of the main focuses of the hydropolitics literature. Especially the fact that the amount of water reaching the Aral Sea and that the Aral Sea came to the verge of destruction by shrinking as a result of this.

Iran, which is subjected to the Middle East’s semi-arid climate, has a large geography with a surface area of 1.7 million square kilometers. It is located in one of the most arid regions of the world and its average annual precipitation is 252 millimeters. This figure is just a fourth of the world’s average precipitation.

The problem between Iraq, Syria and Turkey related to the utilization of waters of the Euphrates-Tigris basin has been continuing since a long time. This problem has been frequently stated by Iraq in recent periods through different platforms.

As is well known, both the quality and the quantity of water resources are adversely affected by the fast-growing population of the world, climate change, increasing urbanization and the development of agriculture and industry. There is a total of 1.4 billion cubed kilometers of water in the world.

The Ministry of Forestry and Water Affairs, General Directorate of Water Management has agreed on a series of training programs with the European Union Technical Assistance and Information Exchange Office (TAIEX) and, as a result, a project was launched in September 2012.

Iraq, which has been in constant conflict for the last three decades with the Iran-Iraq War from 1980-1988, the Gulf War from 1990-1991, the embargo placed on it between 1990 and 2003 and the US intervention between 2003 and 2011, is in shambles.

Along with World Water Day, which is celebrated on 22nd March, conferences regarding the vital importance of water are held in many parts of the world and also studies on this subject have been published.