update on one of the water wars: Dam disputes strain Turkey-Iraq ties

[ensho]

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/KJ02Ak03.html


Images of suburban Istanbul submerged by torrential floods have adorned the front pages of Turkey's dailies over the past few weeks. The fallout from pictures of cars as boats and roads as rivers, has drowned out a potentially more pressing problem for the government in Ankara: the country's growing water shortage problem.

The heaviest rainfall in Turkey for 80 years in early September has disguised the fact that growing water consumption is placing greater pressure on natural resources and straining Turkey's relations with its drought-ridden neighbor, Iraq, to the south. Indeed, while footage of taupe-colored waters possessing the streets of Turkey's largest city were broadcast on 24-hour news channels, Iraq has been grabbing the headlines for its fourth consecutive year of drought.

According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, Iraq had its worst cereal harvest in a decade in 2009, with yields falling to less than a third of the average for the last ten years. The government in Baghdad has, therefore, been pressing hard for its northern neighbor to release more water from the Tigris and Euphrates rivers which rise in Turkey's eastern mountains. Although an interim agreement for water sharing was reached on September 19 at a strategic cooperation council meeting in Istanbul, the issue continues to strain bilateral relations.

Speaking at the conclusion of the meeting, Iraqi Minister of Water Resources Latif Rashid, said, "The shortage of water in Iraq has affected the environment, has affected drinking water, has affected agriculture and the livelihood of the Iraqi people ... We had a very successful meeting because we have promised to increase the flow in the Euphrates for a season ... That will help us to this critical situation and I hope in the following years that we will be in a better position to make some permanent arrangement with our partners in Syria and Turkey."

However, such a permanent agreement seems a long way off. Turkey has made it clear that it does not believe in multilateral water sharing agreements but rather that such issues should be resolved bilaterally. According to Serpil Acikalin, a researcher on the Middle East at the Ankara-based International Strategic Research Organization, "Turkey does not want to be bound by a permanent agreement on the water issue."

-long snip which seems to bode ill for Iraq-

[dipsydoodle]

1. Reminds me of

limiting how much of the Colorado will eventually reach Mexico.

[ensho]

2. a trickle

nt

[GreenPartyVoter]

3. The question is, will people fight over it or move away to where there is water?

Sadly, I think it will be both.

[eissa]

4. Typical turks

My in-laws are from eastern Syria and my own family is still in Iraq. Turkey's hoarding of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers have had a dramatic impact on the environment in both places. In eastern Syria, a region that was rich with agricultural resources, the land has all but dried up. I know families who lived along the Khabour river and farmed acres of land that are now abandoned; you can't farm without water. Turkey continues to get away with so many abuses because of our reliance on those bases inside their borders.

[ensho]

5. kick

nt

[mdmc]

6. ..