Israel Signs Water Deal With Turkey

(March 4, 2004)

Israel signed a deal with Turkey to buy 50 million cubic meters of water each year for the next two decades. Although the price has not yet been established for the water that will come from Turkey’s Manavgat River, it is expected to be considerably higher than the price of desalinated water, which is about 60 cents per cubic meter.

Negotiations were drawn out over five years amidst reports that Turkey threatened to cancel lucrative military deals and prevent Israeli firms from bidding on Turkish development projects if the water deal was not signed. The deal was, therefore, concluded in part to cement strategic and economic ties between the two nations.