Israel and Turkey have agreed to an extraordinary "water for arms" deal which will see 50 millions cubic metres of water a year for 20 years shipped in giant tankers across the eastern Mediterranean and into Israeli ports. This was reported by the newspaper Haaretz in Israel and the Guardian in the UK on 5 and 6 Jan 2004. But a day later ArabicNews.com reported that Turkey's Ministry of Energy has denied the reports that it signed an agreement to export water to Israel.

An official in Mr Sharon's office, said Turkey tied the arms deal to the water agreement. It will involve Israel building a fleet of giant water tankers to ship water from the river Manavgat in Anatolia, and Turkey buying an unspecified number of Israeli tanks as well as air force technology.

Source: Watertech Online, 9 Jan 2004
Guardian, 6 Jan 2004
ArabicNews.com, 7 Jan 2004

Tags: water resources management