The Euphrates-Tigris basin is among the most important river basins in Turkey and in the Middle East. The average annual discharge of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers is 84 billion m3, which equals to the average annual flow of the Nile River. Euphrates provides 90 per cent of water, whose average annual flow is 32 billion m3, from Turkey.

Lebanon’s first water laws date back to Ottoman times. They were later amended during the French Mandate and after independence. The Lebanese water sector was restructured following a revision of its legal framework in 2000.

All water resources in Palestine are shared, mainly with Israel. Shared water usually needs to be governed through agreements on allocation and use between the different parties.

The water crisis in Palestine cannot be presented in isolation from the political context, which continues to affect the economy, population, resource distribution and land ownership in the territories. However, because of the complexity of the issues and the limited scope of this report, the events that have impacted the water situation are only briefly discussed on this page …

Besides news, interviews and in-depth reports on a range of water-related topics in the MENA region, Fanack Water also produces short documentaries on pressing water issues. From the Red Sea to the Dead Sea is the first in a series of films we plan to produce to shed light on complex and often contentious water problems in the MENA region.

Fanack Water provides accessible, well-researched information on the state of water resources in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region through peer-reviewed country files and special reports, as well as interviews and opinion pieces on latest developments in the water sector of each MENA country.