Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 12.5
Growth of
irrigated agriculture on the
High Plains of Texas, USA.
division of the waters of the River Colorado
between the USA and Mexico has been agreed
through negotiation, while within the USA
complex legal agreements between the interested
states govern water usage from the river.
Elsewhere this is not the case, and disputes over
water look likely to increase. Some claim that
armed conflict over water may take place in the
future, while others dispute this prognosis
(Beaumont 1994; Starr 1991). On the River
Euphrates, the crisis is immediate. With the
Euphrates the watershed is located in three
countries—Turkey, Syria and Iraq. Until as late as
the 1970s, only Iraq was a significant user of the
waters of the river. Iraq's use dates back at least
5500 years to the time when the first great
irrigation civilisations were established (Beaumont
1978). The irrigation that was practised was based
TRANSBOUNDARY RIVERS AND
IRRIGATION
Disputes with regard to the use of water for
irrigation have or seem set to occur on
transboundary rivers like the Colorado, Jordan,
Nile and Tigris—Euphrates (Kirmani and
Rangeley 1994; Kliot 1994). The problem with
many of these rivers is that in recent years the
irrigation demand for their waters has grown
tremendously as population numbers have
increased and standards of living, at least in urban
regions, have started to rise. On the Colorado,
developments since the 1930s have meant that all
of the water has effectively been committed to
beneficial uses (Fradkin 1984). The result is that
today the discharge of the river across the Mexican
border is little more than a trickle. However, the
