Iraq struggles to free its trapped waters in Turkey and Iran

Nahla Abdel Moneim

Turkey and its ally Iran are manipulating the water file to form a tool of pressure on Iraq, unconcerned about the Iraqis’ thirst, building their dams on the Tigris and Euphrates and causing the desertification of agricultural lands, diminishing the food basket of Mesopotamia.

In an official attempt to confront this, the Foreign Relations Committee in the Iraqi parliament decided on September 13 to form a delegation headed by Minister of Water Resources Mahdi al-Hamdani to negotiate the water file with Turkey and Iran in order to prevent drought and the desertification of agricultural lands, as well as to stop the opportunities for building new dams.

Desertification and water shortage

Hamdani noted in mid-July that the amount of water flowing from Ankara decreased by 50% due to dams.

The Iraqi water crisis began to escalate in 2018, when thousands of Basra citizens were poisoned as a result of polluted rivers, which reinforced internal criticism against the regimes in Ankara and Tehran, who are indifferent to the right of other peoples to survive, considering that water is the source of life.

On July 10, Iraqi Ministry of Water Resources spokesman Awni Diab stated that the minister is trying to renegotiate the water file with the Turkish ambassador, accompanied by parallel attempts with Tehran, as the water flowing from Turkey represents approximately 90% of the water of the Euphrates River, while the water coming from Iran represents 17% of the water entering the Tigris River.

Baghdad seeks to determine its share of water in a way that guarantees the rights of its people, while Ankara is delaying the resolution. According to Diab, Ankara seeks to prolong the negotiation period until it finishes completing all its projects in a way that harms the interests of Iraq. Here it should be noted that the relevant negotiations that were conducted in 2019 did not result from any agreements guaranteeing Baghdad’s rights.

Turkey and Iran cut Mesopotamian waters

Turkey has several dams on the Euphrates River, including the Ataturk Dam in the Urfa region, which began operating in the early 1990s, and the Keban dam, which has been operating since 1974 with a storage capacity of more than 30 billion cubic meters. As for the dams of the Tigris River, the Aliso dam was built on the border areas of Mardin and Sirnak and inaugurated in 2018. It is considered one of the largest dams, and one of the water projects in Anatolia that Baghdad fears will eliminate its water share.

Meanwhile, Iran overlooks the tributaries of the Tigris River and controls it through a number of dams, causing Baghdad’s agricultural share to decrease. Tehran built dams on the Alwand and Karun rivers, as well as water projects that affected the water course in the Sirwan and Karkh rivers.

Decline in source of Iraqi life

Hisham Ali, an Iraqi researcher specializing in military affairs, told the Reference that Turkey and Iran deal with the sources of river water as their private property and then build dams on the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, which affects the amount of water flowing to Iraq, in addition to changing the course of rivers. In his opinion, Ankara seeks to seize the entire quantity of water in light of its deteriorating internal conditions.

Ali pointed out that the efforts of Ankara and Tehran threaten the agricultural areas of ​​Iraq and reduced the percentage of agricultural crops, which contributed to transforming the country into a commercial market for Turkish fruits, thus reviving Ankara’s economy while threatening Iraq’s food security.