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Iraq: New Turkey dam threatens agriculture
and marshland
29.11.2006 |
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BAGHDAD, November
29, -- Alarm bells rang last August at Khalifa
Shawkat al-Yass' house as news spread of the
construction of a massive dam on the Tigris River in
Turkey. As a Kurdish farmer depending on the Tigris,
fear of losing his livelihood has been a constant
worry on his mind ever since.
"We call upon the government to find the appropriate
solution to protect our livelihood because we have
no other sources, just this land and cattle," said
al-Yass, 50, a father of 15 children.
"I have no other choice. I can't leave my land and
take all my family to live in another place. This
will be hard for us," he added.
The 1,800km-long Tigris flows from eastern Turkey
(North Kurdistan) to southern Iraq, where it joins
the Euphrates River and eventually empties into the
Gulf. The Ilisu Dam will be one of the largest dams
in Turkey and is scheduled to be completed by 2013.
The dam's main functions will be to produce
hydro-electric power and bring better irrigation for
local agriculture.
However, it will reduce the amount of Tigris water
entering Iraqi territories by nearly 50 percent.
"The normal annual amount of Tigris water at the
Iraqi-Turkish borders is 20.93 billion cubic metres
and this amount will be reduced to 9.7 billion cubic
metres per year with the completion of this dam,"
said Ali Nasser, an expert at the Ministry of Water
Resources.
"And that will deprive at least 696,000 hectares of
agricultural land from fresh water. And, of course,
this will have negative affects in the fields of
agricultural production, potable water and
electricity," Nasser added.
Nasser warned that this will expand desertification
in Iraq and force the farmers who depend on Tigris
to abandon their lands and head to cities unless an
agreement is reached with the Turkish government.
Last August, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdogan led a ground-breaking ceremony for the
controversial dam project that supporters say will
bring vital water supplies to parts of the
overwhelmingly Kurdish south-east of Turkey but
which critics say will drown the area's
archaeological heritage.
Progress on the dam has been repeatedly delayed as
human rights and environmental groups have pressured
international contracting firms to withdraw from the
project. They say that the dam will flood dozens of
towns and destroy archaeological treasures including
the medieval fortress city of Hasankeyf, which
overlooks the Tigris.
The Turkish government is anxious, however, to see
the dam completed. "We have lost enough time, we
don't have any more time to wait," Erdogan said at
the ceremony, promising supporters that the dam
would transform the Tigris River into the "Ilisu
Sea" - turning the brown landscape green and
attracting tourism to the impoverished region.
Iraqi farmer Arif Moussa Mohammed, 60, fears the
reverse will happen for him. He has dug three wells
to ensure he has enough water for his 250 hectares
of land, which lie on the banks of the Tigris in one
of Mosul's villages in northern Iraq, some 400km
north of the capital, Baghdad. Already, he has water
problems of a different nature.
"The problem we face is that we have briny water due
to the effect of some chemical materials deep inside
the soil and that is not good for our olive trees,
which need just fresh water," Mohammed said. "This
means more trouble for our already devastated life
as we will not be able to use this water for our
land or for our cattle in case of any future
shortages."
Marshlands at risk
The impact of a reduced flow of water in the Tigris
will be felt far beyond farmland in northern Iraq.
In the southern city of Basra, about 550km south of
Baghdad, Abdullah Ramadan, an official with the
Marshlands Revival Centre, depicted a grim picture
for the newly revived marshlands with the
construction of the dam.
"The marshlands are at risk of losing about 3
million cubic metres of water per year and this will
endanger the life there," Ramadan said.
Iraq's fabled marshlands have been at the centre of
water-related controversy for some time. Following
the first Gulf war in 1991, former Iraqi president
Saddam Hussein revived a programme to divert the
flow of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers away from
the marshes in retribution for a failed Shi'ite
uprising.
Hussein's plan transformed these wetlands into
desert, forcing some 300,000 inhabitants out,
according to Ramadan. Of the almost 3,600 square
miles of marshes in 1970, the area shrank by 90
percent to 300 square miles in 2002.
However, since the start of the US-led occupation of
Iraq in 2003, efforts to restore the marshes have
gradually revived the area as water is restored to
the former desert. Ramadan said that about one-third
of those forced to leave the area after the marshes
were drained have now returned.
"We were happy to get rid of Saddam, but now we got
another enemy - Ilisu," Ramadan said.
irinnews org
The use of the term "Kurdistan" is vigorously
rejected due to its alleged political implications
by the Republic of Turkey, which does not recognize
the existence of a "Turkish Kurdistan"
Southeast Turkey.
Others estimate as many as 40 million Kurds live in
Big Kurdistan (Iraq, Turkey, Syria, Iran, Armenia),
which covers an area as big as France, about half of
all Kurds which estimate to 20 million live in
Turkey.
The Kurdish flag flown officially in Iraqi Kurdistan but
unofficially flown by Kurds in Armenia. The flag is
banned in Iran, Syria, and Turkey where flying it is
a criminal offence"
Southeastern Turkey:
North Kurdistan (
Kurdistan-Turkey) wikipedia
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