Turkey to give Iraq, Syria more water from Tigris

By SUZAN FRASER, Associated Press Writer

ANKARA, Turkey – In a change of heart, Turkey said Thursday it would strive to increase the amount of water it releases to Syria and Iraq through the historic Tigris and Euphrates rivers but warned that it too was suffering from a severe drought.

Hours earlier, Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz had said his country was already too overstretched with water and power demands and could not raise the flow of water any further.

Water disputes threaten to disrupt the newly warm relations between Turkey and its neighbors and complicate wider efforts to bring stability to the region, as the populations of the three countries increase and the demand for water grows.

Drought-stricken Iraq has accused upstream neighbors Turkey and Syria of taking too much from the rivers and their tributaries. Below-average rainfall and insufficient water in the Euphrates and Tigris rivers have left Iraq parched for a second straight year, wrecking swaths of farmland and threatening drinking water supplies.

"It is very important and Iraq is already getting much less water due to some dams constructed in Turkey and Syria," said Nagesh Kumar, a water expert at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore. "There is potential for international conflict in this region on water disputes."

Environment Minister Veysel Eroglu said Turkey would try to release as much water as possible over its legal obligation of 500 cubic meters per second.

"There is a serious water crisis in Iraq, we are taking this into account," he said at the end of a meeting with the Iraqi and Syrian irrigation ministers. "But our own capabilities are limited."

Eroglu would not say how much more water Turkey could allow its neighbors. Yildiz said Turkey was already releasing on average 517 cubic meters per second instead of the required 500 cubic meters per second, sacrificing its own energy needs in the process.

The drought has also dealt a blow to Iraq's hopes that reductions in sectarian violence over the last year would fuel an economic recovery. Instead, lower-than-expected oil prices have crimped government revenues and the scarcity of water will force Iraq to spend money to import crops like wheat and rice to meet domestic demand.