The state of Turkey should uphold its extraterritorial obligations to stop its violations against the ESCR of the Iraqi People by building mega dams that effect the ecosystem in Iraq. 

Will Turkey’s thirst for dam building add an element of combustibility to a regional water crisis?

By Clare Busch, EqualTimes

10 February 2020

As the Ilısu Dam, one of Turkey’s most controversial dam projects, gears up to begin producing energy this month, observers are describing it as yet another example of Turkey’s quietly expanding water programme – a policy that has deep repercussions for the region.

Turkey is attempting to wrest control of several transboundary natural waterways for use in domestic irrigation and hydropower. Over the last decade, Turkey has been strengthening the country’s control over the area’s rivers, causing anxiety over access to water among experts.

In particular, environmentalists and water activists are concerned over the spiralling effects Turkey’s ongoing Southeast Anatolian Project, known as GAP, will have on the region, especially as political instability and civil war has resulted in a serious depletion of Iraq and Syria’s reservoirs. The project includes 22 dams, 19 hydropower plants and a large irrigation network across the Tigris-Euphrates River Basin.

Turkish policy expert and water activist Akgün İlhan criticised the government’s water policy for focusing on “quantity not quality” even at home and says, “we have tap water, but you cannot drink it” due to lack of investment in domestic water infrastructure. İlhan tells Equal Times that the Turkish government is more interested in gaining control of waterways and exporting bottled water than ensuring access to potable water.

Water reserves are critical in times of crisis, and governments depend on reservoirs to release water when upstream flow declines. GAP is not yet completed, but the dams currently in operation, in addition to those that will eventually become part of the network, capture water that would otherwise flow downstream. The Tigris and Euphrates originate in Turkey but are indispensable sources of irrigation for the downstream countries of Syria and Iraq, making the project a top concern for environmental activists.

Iraq, which has its own history of water mismanagement, will have to deal with less water flowing from upstream Turkey thanks to GAP. One of the project’s largest dams, the Ilısu Dam, will affect close to 90 miles of the Tigris and 150 miles of its tributaries when it begins producing energy this month. The government began filling the Ilısu Dam in August 2019 despite years of protests over the project’s flooding of the historical town of Hasankeyf and the destruction of biodiversity. Once the nearby planned Cizre Dam comes into operation, it will exacerbate negative ecological impacts on the region.

In addition to the local displacement already experienced by Turks living near the projects, more dams on the Tigris means less viable water for farmers to use for irrigation. Also, the use of chemical fertilisers and pesticides by farmers in Turkey could result in downstream countries receiving contaminated water and land becoming less productive due to the chemicals.

“Destructive consequences”

New upstream dams are also raising concerns among Iraqis as water scarcity plagues the country. Iraqi officials pointed to Turkish dams as intensifying past water crises. The Turkish government said the Ilısu Dam would not lead to polluted water entering Iraq or Syria because it will only be used for hydroelectric power, not irrigation. But, the proposed downstream Cizre Dam will be used for irrigation.

Iranian energy minister, Hamid Chitchian, claimed Turkish dam projects have caused a chain reaction of rivers drying out in the region. The Iranian president, Hassan Rouhani, called two major dam projects on the Euphrates and Tigris “dangerous” and said they would have “destructive consequences.” But, Iranian dams and water projects have also affected water flow to Iraq, leaving the country squeezed between two dam-hungry countries. Iran’s extensive dam programme is having drastic side effects inside the country as well, possibly causing the drying up of rivers and lagoons.

The Enabling Peace in Iraq Center (EPIC) says Iraq is unable to regularly provide water to its approximately 38 million citizens because of a combination of prolonged drought, dams in neighbouring countries and conflict. As for Syria, researchers at Stanford University found that the reservoirs in Syria’s Yarmouk-Jordan River Basin were halved between 2012 and 2015 and that reservoirs under rebel control were damaged due to a lack of expertise and staff. Damaged infrastructure adds to water loss in storage and delivery.

Turkey’s military offensives in Syria have repeatedly resulted in water cuts. When Turkey invaded the Syrian city of Afrin in 2018, Turkish troops quickly seized the main dam and nearby water plant. The city’s water supply was then cut, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. In 2019, again, a Turkish offensive in Syria left a water station damaged. The station served the city of Hasakah and affected 400,000 Syrians’ access to water.

Ercan Ayboga, a water activist and founding member of the Initiative to Keep Hasankeyf Alive, considers Turkish water projects as an effective tool in the country’s regional diplomacy, which is increasingly focused on military intervention. Turkey’s three major military operations into Syria since 2016 mark a major shift from former Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu’s touted “zero problems with neighbouring countries” policy. “Turkey’s policies are very hostile. They cut the water whenever they want,” says Ayboga.

Dursun Yıldız, a civil engineer and director of the Hydropolitics Association in Turkey, sees the situation differently. He says the dams are necessary for Turkey’s agricultural sector and provide an opportunity to responsibly manage water for the region. “Turkey is ready to share the water in a logical way,” he says.

“Strained dialogue”

But with two weak governments in Damascus and Baghdad, Ankara faces little external political opposition to its dam-building or future water cuts. Tehran seems to push back against Turkey’s water projects to a larger degree than the others, but, as a regional powerhouse with several Tigris tributaries originating in Iran, it is in a slightly different position.

Ayșegül Kibaroğlu was an international relations advisor on GAP from 2001 to 2003. At that time, she tells Equal Times, there was more cooperation between the countries. “It was possible for bureaucrats and technocrats and academics like me to have a dialogue with our counterparts.” Now, when it comes to civil society and the stakeholders, “there is this strained dialogue, and it’s been like that for some time,” says Kibaroğlu.

Although Syria has seven water basins, “the water from the Euphrates makes up more than one-half of Syrian water resources,” Kibaroğlu says, adding that most of the land used for agriculture in Syria relies on the Euphrates.

Even if the Turkish government does not arbitrarily cut water supply to downstream countries, reducing the water flow to Iraq would have rippling consequences, says Iraqi water activist, Professor Ramadhan Hamza Mohammed. He predicts more drought and sandstorms.

According to state-sponsored news source TRT, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said last year that Turkey would increase the flow of water into Iraq to 90 cubic metres per second per the Iraqi government’s request. Despite his assurances, water was again a topic of concern when Cavusoglu met with Iraqi Foreign Minister Mohammed al-Hakim in January of this year. Water activist Mohammed says Iraq and its water will essentially be under the dams’ – and Turkey’s – control.

According to Barış Karapınar, a professor in climate change economics and a member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s technical committee, the region is in grave danger of severe water scarcity. GAP’s “old-fashioned” irrigation techniques, according to Karapınar, worsen the situation as water is lost through evaporation. Furthermore, because the agricultural season is similar for countries in the region “when [water] is most needed, everyone needs it”.

Karapınar adds that with more droughts, it is the poorest and most vulnerable people in the region, especially in rural areas, who stand to suffer the most. And with drought comes a decrease in crop productivity and an increase in migration to urban areas as water resources decline, putting additional pressures on already struggling populations.

On the issue of climate change, Karapınar does not see the Turkish government adopting policies to mediate its effects or regional water scarcity. Rather, he warns, that when it comes to dwindling water supplies, “whoever has the water is going to use it in a way that is bad for others”.

Original source

UN, Experts Warn of Serious Water Problems for Iraq

Dale Gavlak,VoAnews

Amman, Jordan —

Azzam Al Wash teaches at the American University of Iraq, Sulaimani and is the founder of the environmental organization, Nature Iraq, that helped revive the drained marshes in Iraq’s south.

He told VOA that for centuries the Tigris and Euphrates rivers flooded Iraq, renewing its once verdant farmland, but the floods stopped in 1968 after dams were built upstream mainly for hydroelectric purposes in Turkey, where the rivers originate. Iran, he said, also has redirected the Tigris, because it, too, needs water.

“The Iraqi farmer is used to having an abundance of water, not a lack of water, Al Wash said. The entire structure of water management in Iraq is designed and constructed at a time when floods were a natural norm. But by coming to an agreement with Turkey on the operational rules of certain dams, we can actually stop using the man-made lakes that were created for flood control and thus make more water for Iraqi farmers and cities to use.”

However, Al Wash and others don’t hold out much hope for this remedy. He adds that Iraq’s population is ever increasing and with it, so is its water consumption. And then there are climate change challenges.

Iraq’s water resources ministry warned in a shocking report last December that the continuing loss of water from the Tigris and the Euphrates, which form the backbone of its fresh water supplies, could turn the country into a “a land without rivers by 2040.”

Iraq Water Minister Mahdi Al-Hamadani said after contacting his counterparts in Turkey and Iran — he’s still awaiting negotiations. The United Nations is also urging the three neighbors to reach a fair water-sharing arrangement.

Recently, various U.N. agencies issued an urgent call for action to protect Iraq as it marked the World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought. But analysts point to Turkey and Iran’s own water concerns and climate change challenges as obstacles.

Research fellow Tobias von Lossow at the Clingendael Netherlands Institute of International Relations told VOA that observers see the Shatt al Arab waterway where the Tigris and the Euphrates meet in Iraq as “falling dry sooner or later.” He warns that “there are alarming trends” and that there is only “a small window to prevent this from happening.”

“Particularly the Southeastern [Anatolia] Project in Turkey had a big impact. So, the water inflow into Iraq has reduced by 30 to 40% since the late 1970s and this trend continues. Climate change and environmental degradation are contributing and are accelerating that. We will see more drought, water shortages, sandstorms, dust storms. And we will see that on a more frequent and regular basis in the future. There are limited options for Iraq. Iraq can work on domestic water governance. Push a bit harder on agricultural reforms, crop selection, irrigation technology,” said von Lossow.

And we will see that on a more frequent and regular basis in the future. There are limited options for Iraq. Iraq can work on domestic water governance. Push a bit harder on agricultural reforms, crop selection, irrigation technology.”

The United Nations places Iraq among the top five countries impacted most by climate change worldwide, with its increasing loss of arable land due to salinization, less rainfall, prolonged heat waves, and an onslaught of dust storms. Meanwhile, the decline in water levels of both rivers has seen farms and fishing enterprises near their banks abandoned.

Original source

The GAP project began in the 1970s, but VDB considers a later date (1980) as the beggining of negqative impacts.

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