Iraq faces a major challenge after Turkey began filling the giant Alesso dam

Iraq faces a major challenge after Turkey began filling the giant Alesso dam



2019/08/02 09:28:41
 
The Turkish authorities have begun to fill the controversial Elissu dam, whose artificial lake will be flooded with a 12,000-year-old archaeological town and a source of tension with neighboring Iraq, activists said on Friday.

"They have blocked the entrances inside the dam and the water level is rising," said Radwan Ayhan, spokesman for a group of activists opposed to the construction of the dam in southeastern Turkey.

Satellite images from July 19 to 29 show that the water began to rise and gather behind the dam on the Tigris River.

Elso is an integral part of the Southeast Anatolia Project, which aims to develop the economic situation of this impoverished region of Turkey through massive irrigation projects and electricity generation.

But a number of residents of the region and environmentalists expressed concern about the impact of this project on the environment and the heritage of the region. The artificial lake that will be formed will flood the 12,000-year-old Hassankiv.

However, the government rejects the objections and confirms that the majority of the effects of "Hassankiv" was moved, and a new city was built for its inhabitants near its original place will receive its population of three thousand people.

"We are asking the authorities to clear the dam," Ayhan said. "It did not tell the residents anything, and it is disturbing." He explained that "a few months" is needed before the water is flooded.

The Hassankiv Coordinating Committee, which opposes the dam project, announced that the water level began to rise two weeks ago.

In contact with the state water management agency responsible for dams in Turkey, AFP was unable to obtain any comment.

The construction of the Elissu dam is also geopolitical because it is part of sensitive negotiations between Turkey and Iraq over the waters of the Tigris River.

Baghdad fears that the water pool in the dam will reduce the amount of water Tigris entering Iraqi territory, knowing that Iraq is already suffering from a shortage of water.

Turkey began to fill the dam reservoir in June 2018, but stopped the process temporarily after a week because of Iraq's complaint of lack of water flow in the river at the height of summer.

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