Dakar: exclusive interview for the World Water Forum

Serigne Mbaye Thiam, Abdoulyale Sene and Patrick Lavarde @GPE/Ludovica Pellicioli, World Water Forum and Défis Humanitaires.

Interview with Mr. Serigne Mbaye Thiam, Minister of Water and Sanitation of Senegal, Patrick Lavarde, Co-Chairman of the International Steering Committee and Abdoulyale Sene, Co-Chairman of the 9th World Water Forum during the preparatory meeting of stakeholders on October 14 and 15, 2021 in Dianiadio/Dakar, Senegal.

Alain Boinet: Will the next World Water Forum, which will take place from 21 to 26 March 2022 in Dakar, Senegal, keep all its promises?

Serigne Mbaye Thiam : First of all, I would like to point out that President Macky Sall and Senegal have the legitimacy at the global level to raise the debate on water to the level of Heads of State, Government and major institutions. I recall that during its presidency of the UN Security Council, it was Senegal, through the voice of the Head of State, which for the first time in 70 years, raised a debate on water in the Security Council, it was peace and security. Everyone realized at the time that it was the first time in 70 years that the issue of water was raised in the Security Council and this initiative of Senegal has opened the debate by placing the issue of water at a global level.

And it is in the continuum of this initiative that the President thought that for the Dakar Water Forum, which will be held in March 2022, it would be necessary to innovate and broaden the participation of governmental actors, civil society, the private sector, communities, and parliaments. We must take advantage of this opportunity to hold a summit of heads of state, governments and major institutions. The issue of water is an eminently political issue and this morning during the first interventions of these two meetings of stakeholders, many came back to the question of political commitment at the highest level.

It is this political commitment at the highest level that President Macky Sall wanted to make in view of the 2023 United Nations conference on water issues, and I am convinced that it is an issue that will also cross his presidency of the African Union in 2022.

The President of the Republic of Senegal, Macky Sall, at the United Nations in September 2016 @UN

Défis Humanitaires : The theme of this forum is “Water security for peace and development”. Doesn’t it risk forgetting the countries and populations that are neither at peace nor in development, that are facing crises and that urgently need access to water and sanitation, such as the Sahel countries?

Serigne Mbaye Thiam :

I think that the theme of the forum already informs the will and the ambition that we have to have a holistic vision of water, the theme I recall, the security of water for peace and development. In the term there is the word “security” there is the word “peace” and there is the word “development”.

We wanted to touch all the sectors and I am convinced that at the level of the special sessions that we will have, at the level of the debates of the forum, we will have to address the question of access to water in a general way. I mean water and sanitation at the same time. We will have to address these issues in difficult contexts where populations are vulnerable or disadvantaged, including in crisis zones where these issues may not be development issues but rather survival issues.

Défis Humanitaires : At the end of these two days of stakeholders in Dakar, is the WEF well on track?

Abdoulaye Sene : Yes, this is a question to which we answer with a very optimistic and realistic yes, because we simply invested a lot of energy, a lot of consultations and exchanges to elaborate what the content of the forum should be. Today we are very satisfied to see that the consultative groups that were set up and that include more than 1000 actors were able to produce extremely relevant, very inclusive and very concrete solutions.

We therefore consider that from the point of view of the thematic content we have the material and that we are absolutely confident about the interest that this content will arouse and therefore also about the success that should have in terms of concrete results, in terms of concrete proposals, in terms of outstanding initiatives so that this forum is a solid one. And in terms of the commitment of the actors, we can see that with the participation rate that we have obtained, in a very particular context of pandemic, it reinforces us because the world is starting again and today we can clearly see that the actors of water bring a very positive response.

The participants of this meeting of October 14 and 15 in Senegal in Diamniadio came from all continents, from South Africa, Europe, Asia, America and as you see also in Senegal we have a situation that offers beautiful embellies. We are very confident that we should have a forum also in presence with all the impacts at the economic, social and political level.

Défis Humanitaires : If the WEF is on track, will it arrive on time for the Dakar Forum on March 21, 2022?

Patrick Lavarde : I think we can say that the forum is on track. With 5 months to go, we are, as I said this morning, in the home stretch. We have reached the objective for the thematic part of the 4 priorities of the forum since the groups that worked in difficult conditions have produced 92 sessions, that is to say less than 100, which is the objective that was assigned, which covers well the 4 priorities, all the major issues related to the targets of the SDGs. And we are now working on the political messages and actions with the different political segments. Things are well advanced with the local authorities, as we heard this morning, and with the basins, and we will work tomorrow with the parliamentarians.

Dakar, Diamniadio, stakeholders meeting 5 months before the 9th World Water Forum from 21 to 26 March 2022. @Alain Boinet

Défis Humanitaires : You wanted this WEF to be one of solutions and concrete actions, will it really be so?

Abdoulaye Sene : You must have noticed that we have implemented a great innovation for this forum with the Dakar 2022 initiative which has aroused great interest and the echo is very favorable in all continents and this dynamic that we have set in motion has really allowed us to provide answers already. These answers will have to be consolidated and then worked on to scale up. But beyond that, we have tried to encourage the actors to discuss, exchange, but above all make concrete proposals. We can consider that what came out of these exchanges will really allow us to have very concrete proposals, very easy to translate into action.

The consultative groups have drawn up proposals, and we are going to use these proposals to prepare a major political declaration that the Heads of State will endorse on the first day of the forum and entrust this declaration to the various political segments, ministers, local elected officials, parliamentarians, and basin assessments, in order to translate this into action and implement it. And that is why it is a somewhat reversed process. Usually we say people discuss and then? Here, there was a preliminary discussion which led to proposals, these proposals will allow us to elaborate a declaration that the politicians will engage at the highest level. After this adoption, there will be a declension on the field that will follow. We are convinced that in this way we will accelerate the action.

Défis Humanitaires : During this stakeholders’ meeting on October 14 and 15, the focus was on general considerations rather than on concrete water and sanitation projects. How can we now move from ideas to action?

Patrick Lavarde : I think that we have to wait for the details of the sessions to realize this. The risk is quite obvious. We have to remember that the different action groups have been asked to work on the basis of projects which are either very concrete things on territories, or actions to be carried out. In other cases, it may be a little more conceptual, but it seems to me that we will have a fairly solid basis on the concrete level and I am quite confident about the political segments since, if I take the example of local authorities, the subject elected with the OECD provides in particular for the cities of Africa, On the basis of the study carried out in recent months by the OECD, to set up an observatory on the evolution of access to water and sanitation in African cities, which are a major challenge due to population growth and urban concentration on this continent. And to have a permanent support mechanism as the OECD did on the principles of governance after the 5th WEF in Marseille in 2012. We are therefore working on the same example and it is something extremely operational and complete.

In Darfur, water is scarce and difficult to access in the dry season. William Daniels

Défis Humanitaires : Doesn’t the upcoming Dakar Forum risk forgetting the reality of conflict or disaster situations in Africa itself and elsewhere in the world?

Abdoulaye Sene : What I am going to answer first of all to this very important question is to say that we must keep in mind that some of these conflicts have been fanned or formalized by the difficulties of access to water. If you look at some of the areas that are currently involved in multiple conflicts, you will see that there is strong competition over natural resources, particularly water. It is conflicts between herders and farmers, it is also a restriction of the availability of water for herders, and you will see that in most of these areas, there is at the base the problem of water which even if it is not the primary cause contributes to worsen the situation. So dealing with the problem of access to water already leads to the prevention of conflicts, it allows us to contain the crises we have talked about. This is part of the answer. The second part of the answer is to say that in crisis situations, the populations are even more confronted with difficulties because the crisis generates problems of access to water.

Therefore, strategies must be developed, technologies must be developed, and solidarity must be established so that in these conflict zones we can continue to guarantee and ensure access to water for life, for well-being, for health and simply for food. We must also ensure that the measures taken will allow these populations to look to the future with much more hope, to consolidate the peace situations that must necessarily be built after these conflicts. The rest, fundamentally essential first to reduce the lists of conflicts, but also to manage the difficult situations that result from these conflicts as well as to foresee the post-conflict.

Défis Humanitaires : How would you like to conclude 5 months before the Dakar Forum?

Patrick Lavarde : This forum is a World Water Forum, it is not a forum on development conditions. But we all know that where there is insecurity, there are, for example, migratory movements of people and they must find decent conditions of reception. So, obviously, they must have access to sufficient drinking water and sanitation conditions that also concern health.

And there will be excellent sessions on this subject, which will be proposed by the action group on water security, notably under the impulse of Solidarités International and other actors. Similarly, what is being prepared on the basin process, the establishment of basin organizations as they exist in some areas of Senegal is also a form of response to finally contribute to security without claiming to simultaneously solve all existing problems. The forum is a privileged place to advance the cause of water and sanitation in all their dimensions and inspire decision makers.

Biography of Serigne Mbaye Thiam

After completing his elementary and secondary education in Senegal, he pursued his higher education in France, earning a Diplôme d’Etudes supérieures commerciales, administratives et financières from the Ecole supérieure de Commerce et d’Administration des Entreprises de Rouen (Rouen Business School) and a Diplôme d’Expertise Comptable from the French government.
He was Administrative and Financial Director of the Autonomous Port of Dakar and has also worked as a consultant in management, organization, finance and accounting.
He has held the positions of Regional Councillor and Vice President of the Regional Council of Kaolack, Member of Parliament, Vice President of the Economy and Finance Committee and General Rapporteur of the Budget of the National Assembly in 2001.
He also served as Minister of Higher Education, Research, Government Spokesman from April 4, 2012 to October 29, 2012 and Minister of National Education from October 29, 2012 to April 7, 2019.
Mr. Serigne Mbaye THIAM is currently Minister of Water and Sanitation since April 07, 2019.
He was the current President of CONFEMEN (Conference of Ministers of Education of the Francophonie).
In May 2018, he was appointed Vice President of the Board of Directors of the Global Partnership for Education.

Prior to that, from February 2014 to December 2015, he chaired the “Governance, Ethics, Risk and Finance” Committee of the Global Partnership for Education and was a member of the Board of Directors and the Coordination Committee.
As part of his associative commitment, he was Treasurer General of the Senegalese Football Federation; he was also the initiator and first President of the National Movement of Senegalese Football Supporters

Biography of Patrick Lavarde :
Patrick LAVARDE is a general engineer of bridges, water and forests and a permanent member of the General Council for the Environment and Sustainable Development. He was governor of the World Water Council (2012-2018) and president of the International Water Resources Association (IWRA) between 2016 and 2018. He contributed to the organization of the 6th World Water Forum in Marseille, notably as co-chair of the thematic commission, and was a member of the bureau of the international steering committee of the 8th forum in Brasilia. He created the National Office for Water and Aquatic Environments and was its General Manager from 2007 to 2012. Between 1998 and 2007, he was Director General of the National Institute of Environmental and Agricultural Sciences and Technologies. Prior to that, he held various responsibilities in the central and decentralized administration in the forestry, water and agriculture sectors.

Biography of Abdoulaye Sene :
President of the National Committee for the organization of the 9th World Water Forum, “Dakar 2021”.
President of the Board of Directors of SOGEM/OMVS (2013-2017).
President and founder of the international think-tank Global Local Forum.
Deputy and President of the Commission on Development and Land Use Planning of the National Assembly of the Republic of Senegal (2007-2012).
President of the Regional Council of Fatick (2002-2009).
Special Advisor to the Minister of Mines, Energy and Hydraulics of Senegal (2001-2002). Head of the Mission of Studies and Development of Fossil Valleys (1994-2000).
National Director of Hydraulics and Rural Engineering (1984 to 1994).
Expert in Hydraulics, Climate Change, Decentralization, Governance and Local Development.

Syria’s thirsty northeast

Since June 2021, Turkey has reduced the amount of water in the Euphrates for Syria from 500 m3 second to 214m3 by holding this water in its upstream dams.

We drive at a slow pace on the floating bridge over the Tigris River to enter Syria from Iraq. The Turkish border is close. Faysh Khabur is the only crossing point to enter this northeastern Syrian region, which is now landlocked between Turkey and the territory controlled to the west by the Syrian authorities in Damascus.

This region located between the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers is under the control of the Syrian Democratic Council led by the Kurds with Arabs and representatives of what remains here of the Syriac and Armenian Christians driven out of their lands as well as many Kurds. This territory has been the scene of bitter and deadly fighting by Kurdish forces against the jihadists of Daech, from the battle of Kobane to that of Raqqa with the support of the International Coalition including France, the United States and Great Britain.

Raqqua, as in Kobane, a destructive, building-by-building war that Kurdish fighters, women and men, won against Daech at the cost of heavy losses. @Mahmoud Bali

I am traveling in good company with Bernard Kouchner, former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Patrice Franceschi, a committed writer who has just published a novel about the Kurdish women fighters, the Yapajas, and Gérard Chaliand, a geostrategist, all three of whom have been in this region for many years. With them, I am here as a humanitarian specialist in water.

We have been invited by the North-East Syrian Self-Administration (AANES) to participate in an “International Forum for Water in North-East Syria” which is being held in the city of Hassakeh on September 27 and 28. For this region of the North-East is today at the center of a triple water crisis that seriously disrupts and threatens the daily life of its inhabitants and populations forcibly displaced by the fighting that has been taking place in Syria for more than 10 years now.

Along the road to Amuda, abandoned buildings under construction. @Alain Boinet

Here, the earth is uniformly flat. The protective mountains are on the other side, in Kurdistan of Iraq. Along the road, we discover a ghost town with its alignments of unfinished, empty, abandoned buildings. Farther on, small oil wells appear, like tumbleweeds that supply the local fuel. Here and there, in the plain, flocks of sheep, one of the rare resources of the region.

In the car, throughout the hours, discussions are going well on the imbroglio which reigns here, on the fate of the populations and their very uncertain future but with the hope pegged to the body. On the road, one regularly crosses Russian or American military convoys and the Turks are not far. Half a day’s drive later, we reach our destination, the town of Amuda, where the Auto Administration receives us in a house for passing guests.

International Forum for Water in North-East Syria.

The next day, the welcome is warm in Hassakeh in the hall of the vast amphitheater where the Forum takes place. The program is dense and rich with 23 speakers, mainly Kurdish, Arab, with guests from Iraq, France, Austria, Great Britain or South Africa. Representatives of international humanitarian NGOs active in the region are also there.

Opening speech by Bernard Kouchner of the International Water Forum in Northeast Syria.

In his opening speech, Bernard Kouchner, a guest of honor well known to the Kurds, insisted on the risks that Turkey poses to the populations by cutting off or limiting the volume of water essential to daily life and he saluted with great conviction the action of local and international NGOs.

For Patrice Franceschi who succeeded him, this deliberate rarefaction of available water is a “silent” war that aims to weaken the populations and this is an eminently political and diplomatic issue.

Gérard Chaliand, will conclude that despite the errors and uncertainties “no one can force you not to be what you are“. It is the whole question of the right of peoples to self-determination that he reminds us of.

At the podium, experts will succeed to specialists to show, evaluate, analyze the consequences of the drought that affects the whole region, the cut of the drinking water station of Ah Houq and the drastic reduction of the water level of the Euphrates whose source is in Turkey which retains it upstream in a large number of dams.

By way of introduction, a speaker recalled the treaties and agreements signed between Turkey, Syria and Iraq and still relevant. All disciplines are present in this Forum to deal with the subject of water: international law, political science, economics, environment, agriculture, biotechnology, geography, architecture, geology, research, humanitarian. Listening to them express themselves and debate, one discovers the high level of training and competence that exists and that remains involved in the face of the serious difficulties that the populations are confronted with in their daily lives and that lead some to take the uncertain path of exile against their will.

I am personally invited as a water specialist and administrator of several organizations, coordination and think tank dedicated to water and sanitation, to emergency and reconstruction situations as well as to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (2015-2030) which foresee in its Goal 6 a universal access to drinking water for all in the world. It is in this capacity that I am taking the floor at the Forum to remind you of what we all know: water is life, it is a global public good, and that rationing, if not deliberately cutting off water to populations in order to wage war, is contrary to International Humanitarian Law (IHL), which applies to all in conflicts.

Alain Boinet in front of the Forum entrance with participants. @Alain Boinet

At the end of the morning, we take our meals all together in a large room around common tables. It is there, around a dish, that I meet the members of the Forum of NGOs in North-East Syria and other representatives of NGOs from Baghdad and mobilized on the defense of the Tigris River which, coming from Turkey, serves Iraq where it joins the Euphrates to form a common estuary, the Shatt-el-Arab, 200 km long, which opens into the Persian Gulf.

Then, it’s time for “tchaï”, tea and “Cawa”, coffee, under a big tent which protects us from a burning sun which overhangs us in the blue sky. It is also the time of reunion when old friends and acquaintances meet with Bernard Kouchner. Hugs and memories follow. I myself am surprised to be approached by three young people, one man and two women, who want to take a selfie. They say: “Okay, but first tell me how you know me“. “We saw you on the screen of the Forum and we recognized you”. After the pictures, in the discussion, I discover that they work for the coordination of humanitarian INGOs for water, sanitation and hygiene.

I cannot summarize so many interventions and debates during these two days of Forum in Hassakeh because of the diversity and density of the remarks as well as the videos illustrating the subject as close to reality as possible. However, I must now present the why and how of this triple water crisis that is slowly thirsting the population and agriculture.

The triple water crisis in Northeast Syria (NES)

For a long time, as a humanitarian activist for access to drinking water, sanitation and hygiene for all in the world, I had many opportunities to intervene for access to water in Afghanistan, DRC, Mali, Lebanon and elsewhere and to publish and advocate for the cause of water in Geneva, Istanbul, Marseille, Daegu, Paris or Dakar and, today, in North-East Syria.

The information presented here, the figures in particular, are based on information from the AANES and, for the most part, from the NES Forum, which brings together and coordinates the humanitarian action of 14 INGOs in 16 different fields, from water to health, from food security to energy, and including education. It should be remembered that the UN agencies and the ICRC do not have the authorization of the Damascus authorities to intervene in the NES, with the exception of a few government enclaves and IDP camps.

To return to the triple water crisis, it stems from the combination of a severe drought throughout the region in 2020-2021, the cutting off of drinking water from the Al Houq station, and the sharp decline in the water level in the Euphrates.

The water crisis of drought. In 2020-2021, rainfall decreased by 50-70% in the entire region according to FAO. Specifically, AANES calculates that the decrease is more than 75% for rainfed crops and 10-25% for irrigated crops. There are two seasons in Syria for harvesting, the winter season from November to May and the summer season from June to September. The drought and the sharp decrease in water in the Euphrates River are causing an increase in food insecurity as the NES produces 80% of wheat and barley in Syria. Thus, this year, barley production has dropped from 2.2 million tons to 450,000 tons!

Map showing the location of the Hal Houq drinking water station located in Turkish occupied Syrian territory.

The crisis of the Hal Houq drinking water station. This station is located in Syria on a territory between Ras-al-Ain and Tel Abiad, which for a length of 100 km and a width of 30 km was annexed by Turkey after a two-month military offensive launched on October 9, 2019. Since then, the Kurdish populations originally from this area have fled and are now living in IDP camps. They have been replaced by Syrian Arab populations who were refugees in Turkey as well as many jihadists.

This station is therefore under the control of the Turkish authorities who since October 2019 operate regular water cuts. Since the summer of 2021 the water cut is total. However, this station is the only one that can supply the populations of Hassakeh and the surrounding villages as well as the four camps of displaced persons. This represents 460,000 inhabitants and 99,000 displaced persons.

Distribution of drinking water by tanker by humanitarian organizations.

This is where several international humanitarian INGOs had to intervene urgently with water trucks, or “water trucking”, to continuously supply the IDP camps, the informal reception centers and the inhabitants. Local private companies are also drilling into groundwater and selling the water to residents.

The Euphrates River water crisis.

Coming from Turkey where it has its source, the Euphrates River crosses Syria from North to South and then enters Iraq where it joins the Tigris and then the Persian Gulf. In agreements signed in 1987 and still in force, Turkey undertook to supply 500 m3 of water per second to Damascus. For its part, in 1989, Syria signed a bilateral agreement with Iraq providing that 52% of the waters of the Euphrates would return to Baghdad.

However, since June this year, the amount of water entering Syria has fallen to 214 m3 per second, a sudden drop of 60% with many consequences for the people of the region, both in the northeast and in the western part of the river under the control of the Syrian government in Damascus. Thus, 54 of the 73 water abstraction stations located in the west have seen their capacities greatly reduced, as well as 44 of the 126 stations located on the eastern bank of the NES, impacting 38 communities, camps and collective and informal reception centers for displaced people.

Current water level compared to the usual level at Tishreen Dam.

This has had immediate consequences for the population. For example, the Tishreen hydroelectric dam, the first dam on the Euphrates River in Syria, can now only use 2 of its 6 turbines producing 5 to 6 hours of electricity per day (February 2021) instead of 12 to 14 hours (June 2021). We can see the consequences for families, hospitals, public services, stores and farms! A little further down, the Tabqa dam is at 20% of its normal level, very close as in Tishreen to the “dead level” below which the turbines would be irreparably damaged.

Very low water level at Al-Suwah station in Deir-Ez-Zohr in southern Syria

At the water stations along the river, this decrease in water level reduces the water available for family consumption as well as for crop irrigation. Finally, the chemical and bacteriological concentration of water from sewage and agricultural and industrial waste is causing an increase in water-borne diseases, particularly diarrhea, which is increasing infant mortality in the absence of anti-diarrheal medication. Not to mention the alarming increase in cases of malnutrition among young children.

The consequences are striking according to international humanitarian organizations:

5.5 million people are at risk due to lack of drinking water in the NES and Aleppo governorate.
3 million people are affected by the reduction of electrical power.
5 million people are affected by reduced food livelihoods.

Conclusion.

The conclusion of this Forum attended by more than 150 experts ended in a studious and cordial atmosphere.

Gérard Chaliand with participants at the end of the International Water Forum in Northeast Syria.

In this triple water crisis, we must distinguish between the drought that affects all the countries in the region, including Turkey, and the use of the Al Houq station and the water of the Euphrates as a means of pressure on the populations and the NES authorities.

Turkey is actively pursuing the development of its huge project (GAP) to build 22 dams and 19 hydroelectric plants upstream of Syria and Iraq and can at any time reduce or cut off their water!

The humanitarian consequences are immediate in the NES for 2.6 million inhabitants and displaced persons, according to humanitarian organizations, of which 1.8 million require humanitarian aid while several factors of vulnerability (severe restriction of drinking water and for agriculture, decrease in agricultural production, water-borne diseases, increase in prices) combine for the worst. For example, the self-administration indicates that 72% of farmers are suffering from reduced wheat harvests and stocks are at a dangerously low level before winter.

In the immediate future, the first emergency is humanitarian. The NES Forum and its 14 INGOs are doing a tremendous amount of work, but according to their assessment, there is a shortfall of US$215 million to meet basic needs, of which US$122 million is needed now, both for immediate needs and to expand wheat production for the next season.

Statement on social networks of Bernard Kouchner received by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the self-government, Mr. Abdul Karim Omar.

In terms of hydro-diplomacy, it is necessary to return to the international reference framework Conventions: the Helsinki Convention of 1992 and the New York Convention of 1997. These refer to the “equitable and reasonable use” of water between riparian countries as well as the “obligation not to cause damage to the use of other States“.

In this perspective, the Al Houq station must open the drinking water valves again and the station should be accessible to the United Nations and the ICRC in particular. On the other hand, in accordance with its commitments, Turkey must again deliver 500 m3 of water per second into the Euphrates for the populations in Syria and Iraq.

On the way back to Paris, if I am sure that the humanitarians as well as the NES self-administration will do everything they can for the populations in danger, for the most part it is now up to the hydro-diplomacy to act to avoid the worst if this situation were to last.

Alain Boinet back from North East Syria.

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