ANKARA: Tensions rose on Thursday in a water rights battle over the historic Tigris and Euphrates rivers, as Iraq and Syria appealed for more water amid a severe drought but Turkey said it was already too overstretched to do that.
The issue threatens to disrupt the newly warm relations between Turkey and its neighbors and complicate wider efforts to bring stability to the region, as the populations of the three countries increase and the demand for water grows.
“It is very important and Iraq is already getting much less water due to some dams constructed in Turkey and Syria,” said Nagesh Kumar, a water expert at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore. “There is potential for international conflict in this region on water disputes.”
Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said the country’s southeast region was also suffering from low rainfall and drought but Turkey was still releasing more water than it was legally obligated to do so out of humanitarian concerns for its neighbors.
He said Turkey was releasing on average 517 cubic meters per second instead of the required 500 cubic meters per second, sacrificing its own energy needs in the process.
“Water isn’t abundant in Turkey,” Yildiz said on the sidelines of a meeting between Turkey, Iraq and Syria to discuss water-sharing issues. “We cannot top this amount any further.” Drought-stricken Iraq has accused its upstream neighbors Turkey and Syria of taking too much from the rivers and their tributaries. Below-average rainfall and insufficient water in the Euphrates and Tigris rivers have left Iraq parched for a second straight year, wrecking swaths of farmland and threatening drinking water supplies.
“The water situation in Iraq in the past two years has not been good at all,” Iraq’s Minister of Water Resources Abdul-Latif Jamal Rasheed said. “We are suffering from a serious water shortage. Rainfall has decreased by 40 percent. The drought has intensified. This month Iraq will require more water from Turkey and Syria and we believe that this will not be denied,” he said.
Rasheed also hinted that Syria wasn’t sending all of the water down to Iraq.
“Turkey says its is sending 500 cubic meters per second, but that amount is not reaching us,” Rasheed said. “We have to look at the water that is coming from Syria.” Nader Al-Bunni, Syria’s irrigation minister, contended his country was letting more water flow into Iraq than required by agreements.
Sharing water from the Tigris and Euphrates has been a potential source of conflict since the 1970s when Turkey and Syria began constructing dams. To avoid strife, the three nations have been holding a series of meetings between ministers and water experts — Thursday’s was the sixth such meeting in the last two years.
