The master's thesis in the Department of Geography - College of Education for Humanities - University of Basra - examined the impact of water resource deterioration on the re-evaluation of international agreements related to transboundary rivers, Shatt al-Arab as a case study.
The thesis presented by the student Zahra Thaer Ahmed aims to reveal the extent of environmental deterioration (especially hydrological deterioration) that the Shatt al-Arab River area has been exposed to after the conclusion of the Algiers Agreement between Iraq and Iran in 1975 and over a period of 49 years. In order to review the provisions of this agreement and evaluate its compatibility with natural and human developments.
The thesis included a study that included the current study of seven chapters, each of which dealt with a specific topic. The first chapter included, while the second chapter described the study area. The third chapter focused on providing a brief overview of international river agreements. The fourth chapter studied the justifications for re-evaluating the agreement. The fifth chapter was devoted to revealing the effects of the deterioration of water resources in the Shatt al-Arab River. The sixth chapter was devoted to discussing the proposed amendment to the Algiers Agreement. In the seventh and final chapter, this chapter was devoted to clarifying the most important conclusions and recommendations reached by the study. The thesis concluded that the Algiers Agreement of 1975 focused on demarcating river borders and freedom of international navigation in the riverbed without considering the importance of sustaining the flow of fresh water and protecting the aquatic environment from pollution and ensuring it for future generations, as the riverbed channel was exposed to a major threat due to the deterioration of the quantitative and qualitative characteristics of fresh water, as the general rate of fresh water discharge at the Basra station decreased to 92 m3/s during the period 2010-2022, after the rate was about 512 m3/s for the period 1977-2008. The rate of concentration of total dissolved salts (TDS) in the river water at the city of Basra also increased from 708 mg/L for the period 1977-1978 to 3516 mg/L for the period 2021-2022
