Tehran is totally opposed to any dam-building projects on shared water resources in border areas, especially large dam projects being carried out by Turkey.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian made the statement in a parliamentary hearing on Tuesday over criticisms concerning Turkey’s controversial policy to continue the construction of massive dams on shared trans-border rivers.
“Turkey’s ambitious plans to violate Iran’s fair share of joint water resources cannot be tolerated, as the inconsiderate behavior has aggravated water crisis in Iran.”
Turkish officials insist that they are building mega structures in mountainous areas to collect water for power generation. However, 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.
“I have negotiated with my Turkish counterpart at least three times over the past four months –in two meetings in New York and Tehran, and during a telephone conversation - to rethink the construction of dams on the Aras River,” Amir-Abdollahian said.
“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.”
Iran is in constant contact with the Iraqi government since both states have long been suffering from Turkey’s dam-building plans.
Asked whether Iran has any plan to pursue the case internationally, the foreign minister said, “If Turkey was a 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.”
Diplomatic Channels
Amir-Abdollahian noted that all necessary 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. Its effect on downstream rivers has left large parts of Syria and Iraq in severe drought.
From 2012 to 2014, Turkey constructed 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 particularly 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.
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.
Regional and International Scale
Papoli-Yazdi said 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 Arvand River, both located in the southwestern Khuzestan Province.
Water experts, including Abbasqoli Jahani, a former member of World Water Council, believe that because of Iran’s ineffective water diplomacy in the past, Turkey and Afghanistan are not abiding by the treaties and memoranda of understanding signed with Iran.
“Settling the key issue requires a supranational, integrated approach to cross-border water resource management based on legal and institutional frameworks and shared benefits and costs,” he concluded.
