How the US is using water as a weapon of war
US support for the Kurds, accompanied by a failure of its diplomatic initiatives on conflict settlement with Turkey, has led the Turkish authorities to artificially close the Euphrates in violation of arrangements reached by Ankara and Damascus.
In fact, the American approach to the establishment of Kurdish autonomy has empowered the Turkish government to utilise its control over dams on the Euphrates as a weapon of water terrorism.
Hostages in this situation are the Syrian farmers, who have lost the possibility to apply irrigational technologies that, in the long term, will lead to an aggravation of the food crisis in the country.
Besides, Washington has continued to play cynically with contradictions between depending on the water resources of the Nile and African countries for the purpose of creating a geopolitical configuration in the region.
So, instead of assisting in the conflict settlement between Egypt and Ethiopia, caused by Addis Ababa's aspiration to finish building Renaissance Dams, the White House has promoted hostility between the two countries.
Americans privately support the Ethiopian authorities in an attempt to limit the influence of Cairo, especially in light of the fact that President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi is pursuing an independent foreign policy aimed at strengthening relations with Russia.
According to the American administration, Ethiopia should become the new "centre of force" in North Africa and serve as a true conductor of US interests among the Nile-basin countries.
The USA's interference with the realisation in Africa of hydropower projects that are not under their control can shake their influence on the continent.
The Libyan crisis is often cited as an example of Washington's selfish approach. Libyan leader Muammar Kaddafi initiated the world's largest irrigation project, which is listed in the Guinness Book of Records under the name "Great Man-Made River" (1600 km long).
It was capable of transforming the whole of northern Africa into a blossoming garden and providing water independence from the West, which monopolised actual control over an infrastructure of maintenance with local population potable water.
The project was in the final stage of realisation but was actively supported by Americans. "The Arab Spring" in its literal sense has buried both Gaddafi and the state of Libya, as well as its global ‘Water Initiative’.
Washington has, in fact, cast Libya into chaos and poverty. Instead of prosperity, Libya has faced war and anarchy, having lost control over its natural resources.
A similar destiny was cast on the South Sudanese project of drainage of the world's largest tropical wetlands, Sudd Wetland (Al-Sudd), and building of the water channel "White Nile, capable of transforming Sudan and Egypt into blossoming oasis.
The given ambitious projects—which are incredibly unprofitable to Washington—have been abandoned due to the civil turmoil in Sudan. Israel, who now has control over cheap South Sudanese oil and refuses to acknowledge strengthening Egypt, joined the United States in blocking this attempt.
