MSDToday, the works of “The International Forum of Water in North and East Syria” were concluded with a set of recommendations that will serve as a work program for the next phase.
The recommendations include:
– Denouncing the policies of the Turkish state in diverting water into a political weapon against the civilian population in North and East Syria, the whole of the Syrian state and Iraq.
– Submitting a general and comprehensive report, on behalf of the Forum and all its participants, on all violations of the Turkish state of the international laws and charters governing waters to the bodies and organizations of the United Nations, the European Union, the international and human rights organizations.
– Calling on the international community to pressure the Turkish state to reverse its policy and its breach the laws governing the common international waters.
– File a lawsuit against the Turkish state for violating the public international law, international norms and bilateral and tripartite agreements that it was previously committed to regarding the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, and its use of water as a weapon of war, in violation of the Geneva Conventions of 1949.
– Sharing the results of this forum with the concerned civil society organizations, and civil society in Syria, Iraq and Turkey.
– Calling on the international community to intervene immediately and assume its humanitarian duty in the region, with regard to the effects of water outage, its scarcity and its impact on communities and refugee camps.
– Documenting all lectures, researches that were discussed in the forum, and formulating them to prepare a water map for optimal investment.
– Calling the Autonomous Administration to solve water problems through dialogue and cooperation with the concerned authorities, such as Iraq, Syria, and international organizations and forces, as it is a humanitarian issue.
– The contribution for setting projects that support water sources, secure sustainable sources for them, build small and medium dams on small rivers, build water desalination centers, and bring river water to the water-deficit areas.
– Cooperating with humanitarian and human rights organizations for obtaining the material and moral support to confront the repercussions and risks of the water crisis in the region.
– Calling the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria to set long-term strategies and policies based on researches and studies issued by research centers and get benefit to avoid the effects of the water crisis in the region, and to confront the negative repercussions and environmental disasters of water scarcity.
– setting serious and binding programs for rationalization and raising awareness in the various uses of water in partnership between the Autonomous Administration and research centers.
– Calling the Autonomous Administration to establish studies centers specialized in water security.
– Construction of sewage treatment plants.
– Usage of alternative energy methods, air and solar methods.
– The possibility of benefiting from the Tigris River and bringing its water to areas that suffer from a water deficit.
– Focusing on the need to maintain the cleanliness of running water and its follow-up by the local administration bodies in the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria, and to set programs and policies that rationalize and deter individuals, groups, companies and institutions that do not adhere to hygiene standards in and near river basins, and for groundwater as well.
– Establishing a comprehensive and in-depth study of the human, economic and water resources in the region, and use them for the requirements of development in its various orientations, especially those related to water, its sources and methods of management.
– Submitting a general and comprehensive report about this forum on the possible solutions and proposals that were put forward by the lecturers to preserve the existing water sources, secure new sources for them, and submit them to the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria to work on following up them, studying them, and implementing what is possible by the Follow-up Committee.
– Forming a follow-up committee emanating from the forum to follow up the implementation of recommendations and proposals.
– Calling the Autonomous Administration to form a diplomatic committee specialized in water affairs.
