Hey y’all Pete here. In Pakistan they use the Moslem water principles at the local level in order to allocate and distribute water to agricultural users. They still use the British Canal and Drainage Act of 1873 as a rule of law when it comes to the governmental level, where water management is a provincial matter, in three of the four provinces. This is one of the world’s oldest and largest irrigation systems and it has been suffering from decay for the past 50-80 years. Salinity is damaging crop production to thousands of acres of land every year. The main problem they have is at the farm level there is improper management and also lack of coordination between the provinces.

If I could rewind time, traveling back to the past to advise Middle Eastern leaders about water resources, here is what I would advise them to do. I would tell them that they need to create a better administrative system which would be comprised of tribunals of irrigators in each irrigation community, like that of Valencia, Spain. This would help to narrow and pinpoint the decision making when it came to deciding on what should be done about water allocation and distribution. The meetings and decisions of these tribunals should be public and verbal, with the decisions being made being written down and recorded in a record book. This would make the system simple and equal. The problem of inequality and social classes battling against the actual people who need the irrigation would almost cease to exist and the change would help to prevent it from happening in the future. I would keep the water structures, such as the qanats and waterways, the same because they already go to where they need to, but I would add some norias, or water wheels, along with more tanks so that when a drought came, some water would be stored for future use.

I believe these leaders would think that these ideas would be worth implementing because they are simple, they bring more equality to the irrigation community, which would result in greater efficiency and production, and it would create a much better system since the people who use the water would actually be in charge of it. They know how much water they need and how to disperse it across the land better than the ruling elite, so it makes a lot of sense to hand them the power that they deserve.

The first piece of information that I would need from the past in order to write a formal research paper about my recommendations is who the exact ruler(s) were during the time period that I choose. The second piece of information that I would need is what time period I would be researching. The third piece of information that I would need is some of the actual laws that were written and implemented during that time period and by those rulers. I would look for this information on the past either a) the Academic Search Premier, b) Albertson’s or Boise Public Library, or c) A credible internet source such as an article that is scholarly or peer-reviewed.

Pete

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If you could rewind time, traveling back to the past to advise Middle Eastern leaders about water resources,

what would you advise them to do? Be specific;

name the country or countries you are talking about, and reference particular engineered structures and systems. What would you keep the same, and

what would you recommend they do differently?

Based on what little you have learned from course readings of the various cultures in the region and the political situations there, do you think the leaders would view your recommendations as worth implementing? Explain your reasoning.

The middle east is already a place were people have to adapt to survive there well, water is a crucial part in being able to survive in these difficult climates. From the inception of the countries water conversations should have been one of the most important focuses. instead many

(insert examples of countries here) water reserves have been used till they dried up or contaminated leaving farmers with out the abilities to maintain crops and cities with out the means to live.

(insert engineered structures/systems that cause this)

(what would you keep the same?/how would you change the problem?)

More info. needed:

(Where would you look to find this information about the past? Again, be as specific as possible.)

– what were past regional weather patterns like? what is the norm for the area’s ?

– population growth and how it attributed to the rate of water consumption both for people and use

-historically what other methods have been used for water ? were they more effective than the systems that lead to the current water state?

If I could I would travel back in time and talk to the leaders in Turkey. I would begin by explaining the current situation we are in. Turkey currently only has 1,600 cubic meters of drinkable water per year per person. Compared to countries considered water rich who have 8,000-10,000 cubic meters of drinkable water per person per year. It is estimated that this will decline to 1,000 cubic meters of drinkable water by 2023. Though in comparison to other Middle Eastern countries that have an average of 900 cubic meters of drinkable water per person per year, Turkey is water rich.

The blame is not fully placed on Turkey as a government but also on climate change. The problem is a combination of the governmental planning, societal growth and climate change. Urbanization and industrialization is part of the problem when it comes to global warming and climate change so the problem is almost complete circle. In 2014 winter rainfall in Turkey had only reached one third of the normal levels.

As the population grows in Turkey so does the amount of space needed to live. Urbanization has taken over wetlands, forests, fields and other areas for water resources. But as the population grows, so does the amount of water needed.

Re-routing water from sources such as the Melen river could be a possibility but not a sustainable one. This would just drain another ecosystem of its resources. Recycling water could potentially increase water but people and the government would need to be trained properly on this for the safety of the population. I think in a government like Turkey, still becoming industrialized and urbanized it would be hard to implement such things like green habits such as recycling water because they are so far from that point as a society.

I would want to have the policies that were implemented at the specific time I was referencing. Not only the policies on water usage, and or resources, but also any policies for the environment or policies that had visible harmful effects on the environment. I would want to know specifics on where the government and society are at in comparison to countries that are implementing policies that are fighting climate change. I would also want to know how surround countries are affecting the water resources in the specific country, Turkey if I continued with this as a starting point. I think I would be able to find some of this information through database and research articles. Also since most of the information is government related there should be records of most of it.