Settling conflicts concerning cross-border resources with Turkey is only feasible through diplomatic channels, a member of Iran Water Industry Federation, a privately-owned organization, said.
“Pursuing robust water diplomacy is the best approach to help Iran assess ways and come up with effective and sustainable solutions for joint management of transboundary water resources with neighboring nations, including Turkey,” Reza Hajkarim was also quoted as saying by ILNA.
The strategy can also help regional cooperation, in addition to tapping into joint water resources peacefully, he added.
Simply put, the diplomatic instrument is a dynamic process that helps develop reasonable and peaceful solutions to water-related concerns while promoting collaboration among riparian stakeholders such as Iran and Turkey.
According to the official, to hold constructive dialogues with Turkey, Syria and Iraq should also join Iran, as all these countries have been adversely affected by Turkey’s ambitious plans to build dams that have aggravated water crisis not only in Iran but also in Iraq and Syria.
Turkish officials insist that they are building mega structures in mountainous areas to collect water for power generation. Nonetheless, such projects have substantially reduced the inflow of water into Iran from rivers originating in Turkey over the past decade due to the neighbor’s dam-building schemes.
“Turkey is using its access to abundant water resources as a weapon to achieve its political goals,” he said, adding that regular meetings can help address issues related to transboundary water resources, such as Sarisou, Aras and Qarasou rivers more effectively.
Such negotiations have already helped Iran settle water issues with Iraq over Zab River along the western borders and if Iranian officials are persistent, the same approach will guarantee Iran’s fair share from shared resources with other neighbors, including Turkey.
“I have negotiated with my Turkish counterpart at least three times over the past eight months – in two meetings in New York and Tehran, and during a telephone conversation - to rethink the construction of dams on the Aras River,” Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said.
National Interests
The Foreign Ministry does not approve of Turkey’s dam construction on the border water resources and believes that such moves are unacceptable and both MPs and the government should join hands to deal with the issue and secure Iran’s national interests, he added.
Iran is in constant contact with the Iraqi and Syrian governments since both states have been adversely affected by Turkey’s dam construction plans.
Asked whether Iran has any plan to pursue the case internationally, the foreign minister said, “If Turkey was party to the 1997 New York Convention [on the law of the non-navigational use of international water], we would have been able to sue them. But now we have to pursue the case through dialogue and bilateral negotiations.”
Amir-Abdollahian noted that all legal and political measures have been taken in this regard between Tehran and Ankara, and hopefully the problem will be solved through diplomatic channels.
Iran’s Department of Environment has already warned that Turkey’s move to construct Ilisu Dam over Tigris River will pose a serious environmental threat to Iraq and eventually Iran by reducing the inflow of Tigris water to Iraqi territory by 50%.
Over the past half century, Turkey has built 22 dams and 19 hydropower plants on the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, as part of its multibillion dollar Southeast Anatolia Project that has caused severe drought in large parts of Syria and Iraq.
From 2012 to 2014, Turkey built six hydropower plants on the Aras River and is currently planning eight more.
More and potentially larger projects are still in the pipeline. Among these, the recently announced Soylemez Dam stands out. With a planned height of 113 meters and a carrying capacity of 1.4 billion cubic meters, the project would create the fourth-largest reservoir in Turkey.
International Crisis
According to Mohammad Hossein Papoli-Yazdi, the head of the Iranian Association of Geopolitics, Iran will have to face the consequences of the international water crisis in the next 10 years, if it fails to find solutions with the help of diplomacy today.
The expert added that although there are policies regarding domestic sources of water, there is a notable absence of a clear and comprehensive strategy on cross-border resources, on which Iran has a right.
Papoli-Yazdi said that in general, Iran pursues no water diplomacy at the regional and international scale. He noted that if Iranian officials had entered into diplomatic negotiations with Turkey 40 years ago, when they began building dams over Tigris and Euphrates, the waters that cross Iraqi and Syrian plains to form Arvandroud would not have reached their present state.
“Large-scale operations carried out by eastern and western neighboring states to control cross-border rivers have compounded Iran’s mounting water crisis,” Mehdi Qomshi, the head of the Water Affairs Faculty at Shahid Chamran University in Ahvaz, Khuzestan Province, said.
“Controversial policies pursued by Turkey and Afghanistan, which deplete water supplies in transboundary waters, such as shared aquifers, lakes and river basins, have intensified water paucity in Iran.”
According to the official, since a long time, without reaching an understanding with Iran, Turkey has launched dam construction initiatives on transboundary rivers, resulting in a substantial reduction of water level not only in Hour Al-Azim wetlands but also in Arvandroud, both located in Khuzestan Province.
The bottom line is that an effective water diplomacy will hopefully convince neighboring nations to abide by the treaties and memoranda of understanding signed with Iran.
