At a Glance
- A 12,000 year old town in Turkey is disappearing into the Tigris River, as rising water levels from the Ilisu Dam slowly submerge the town of Hasankeyf
- The move is alarming Iraqi officials, who fear that this will impact the water scarce’s already strained water supply from the Tigris River.
- The Ilisu Dam will generate 1,200 megawatts of electricity, making it Turkey’s fourth-largest dam in terms of energy production.
A 12,000 year old town in Turkey is disappearing into the Tigris River, as rising water levels from the giant Ilisu Dam further downstream are slowly submerging the town of Hasankeyf and flooding an area which was settled by humans for millennia. Coupled with climate change, and identity politics, the decision of the dam’s placement comes with ramification.
According to a Reuters report, the dam was approved by the Turkish government in 1997 to generate electricity. Now, it threatens to uproot nearly 80,000 people from 199 nearby villages.
“Dirt has been piled at both ends of the modern bridge, which leads into Hasankeyf, to prevent entry to the town. Village guards wait at the end of it,” the Reuters report describes.
Hasankeyf was designated a conservation area by Turkey in 1981. With a history that spans nine civilizations built in the heart of the Fertile Crescent, the ancient town holds archaeological and religious significance. The city holds a bridge held to be the largest from the Medieval period, and a variety of surviving, sacred mosques from the 14th century.
After years of setbacks, the dam is online and started filling in July 2019. The water levels around the town have already risen 49.2 feet, and will continue rising at a rate of 5.9 inches a day or 3.4 feet a month.
According to Reuters, “the Ilisu Dam forms a strategic portion of Turkey’s Southeastern Anatolia Project, designed to spur economic growth in its poorest and least developed area.”
Many locals have left Hasankeyf, many of them relocating to Yeni Hasankeyf, a new town on a nearby hill which will sit on the shores of a newly created lake once the dam is completely filled, Reuters reported.
The dam is now 20-25% full, according to the Hasankeyf Coordination group, Reuters reported, and the water will likely rise around another 164 feet in coming months.
The move is alarming Iraqi officials, who fear that this will impact the water scarce’s already strained water supply from the Tigris River.
As weather.com reported, water availability, access and sanitation in Iraq are all below international standards. Furthermore, water resources are increasingly under stress due to both climate change and bureaucratic mismanagement, according to analysts.
Roughly 70% of Iraq’s water resources flow from outside its territory, especially from the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers. Both flow through Turkey. Due to climate factors as have been exacerbated by climate change, Iraq had experienced an extended severe drought, though parts of the country are receiving rain this year.
This reality has been used for political gain in the past. In 2018, Iran cut the water from the Little Zab River which flows all the way to Baghdad, and from 42 smaller rivers that flow into Iraq, according Iraqi Foreign Ministry spokesperson Ahmed Mahjoob. Iran also temporarily cut the water flowing from the Little Zab in 2017, which led officials in Iraqi Kurdistan to restrict the flow of water into Iraq.
The question of dams and water flow is not a new issue in the region, and Iraq is stuck in the middle. Iran and Turkey constructed dams on the Tigris and Euphrates, preventing water from entering Iraq and reducing the water entering Iraq by more than 40 percent, according to a recent report.
Following the Tigris, Hasankeyf is roughly 75 miles from Iraq.
This isn’t the first time Iraq is being plagued by a potential water crisis. In 1975, Saddam Hussein and Iran’s Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlav signed the Algiers Water Agreement in which Iraq relinquished claims to the Shatt-al-Arab waterway, in exchange for Iran to cease its support of an independent Kurdistan.
Kurds are notoriously the largest diasporic group without a country. While there is no census of the Kurdish diaspora, the Council of Foreign Relations estimates there are 2 million Kurds outside of Kurdistan, the majority of whom are in Europe. This figure includes Kurds from the ancestral Kurdistan region, which spans portions of modern day Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria. The Kurds have been persecuted for their identity by all four of these countries, and in some cases are still being persecuted and mistreated, like in Turkey.
The current population of Hasankeyf is predominantly Kurdish.
Before the dam was turned on, environmental campaigners unsuccessfully challenged the dam project at the European Court of Human Rights on the grounds it would damage the country’s cultural heritage.
According to Reuters, the Ilisu Dam will generate 1,200 megawatts of electricity, making it Turkey’s fourth-largest dam in terms of energy production.