One ought not to forget the political purpose of Turkey’s dams. In this regard, Badri said, “Turkey is following water policies to influence regional crises in neighboring countries. This is clearly demonstrated in its quest to influence the situation in Syria and Iraq through water leverage.”
Another solution was suggested by Mahdi Rashid, the director of the Public Authority for Dams and Reservoirs at the Ministry of Water Resources, who told Al-Monitor, “Iraq must have understandings with Turkey. In fact, Iraq is scheduled to launch official talks through the Ministry of Water Resources in October to find ways to prevent the bad impact of the dam on Iraq’s amount of water.”
Rashid added, “The Ilisu Dam is likely to reduce the water supply of the Tigris River to 8 billion cubic meters per year, which would come to the detriment of the agricultural sector, increasing desertification areas in Iraq by a large margin. This would also affect power generation in the hydraulic facilities on the Mosul Dam and the Samarra Barrage.”
Amer Habib, a specialist in agriculture and irrigation at the Mussayib Institute in Babil, told Al-Monitor, “In 1990, Turkey completed the Ataturk Dam on the Euphrates River, which is one of the largest dams in the world. The dam has caused shortage in the irrigation water in the areas through which the river cuts, including in Babil governorate.”
He said, “Iraq’s decreasing water shares from Turkey has led to social and environmental shifts because of the resulting high level of salinity and desertification, which prevented farmers from cultivating the lands.”
To overcome these water crises, Iraq has to implement international treaties, guaranteed by international law, that regulate water shares between upstream and downstream countries. Iraq has also to start using modern irrigation and storage techniques so as not to waste water and to irrigate larger areas with the minimum amount of water possible.
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