Water, Politics and Dams in the Mesopotamia Basin of the Northern Middle East: How Turkey Instrumentalises the South-Eastern Anatolia Project for Political, Military and Strategic Interests

Iran, Iraq and Turkey, and to a lesser extent Syria, are often said to be the water-rich exceptions in a broad, water-deficient northern Africa and Middle East region (Siddiqi and Anadon 2011: 13). Yet, groundwater levels and water availability are falling in the wider Middle East region generally, and the future prospects are dim. According to NASA, the Levant region, comprising Cyprus, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria and Turkey, is experiencing its worst drought for nine centuries. Moreover, groundwater levels are decreasing as a result of a higher rate of extraction than recharging, while the quality of the water is at also risk due to environmental pollution (Tropp 2006). The river from which Jordan took its country name is beginning to run dry (Zurayk 2014). Iran, Iraq and Turkey, as well as Syria, are also experiencing increasing periods of drought and serious water crises (Kömüşcü et al. 2005; Barnes 2009; Douglas et al. 2010; Al-Ansari 2013; Gleick 2014; Lund 2014; Madani 2014). An increased intensity of drought is also reported in these countries (Kelleya et al. 2015; Ahmadi 2018;).