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Home , Euphrates, Keban Dam, Tabqa Dam

chapter seven

Dams on and : Impact and Regulation Through International Law

Nicolas Bremer

I. Introduction

Mesopotamia—the land between two —was historically perceived as a freshwater rich region in the arid Arabian Peninsula. Despite the intense sea- sonal and yearly fluctuations of the flow of Euphrates and Tigris, their was the basis for the advance of Neolithic and civilizations such as the Hattian and Hittitian cultures in , the Assyrian culture in Northern , the Babylonian culture in central Mesopotamia and the Sumerian culture in southern Mesopotamia. While not new to the regions of and , freshwater scarcity is a rather recent issue on the banks of Euphrates and Tigris, as is the international dimension of freshwater distribution and uti- lization. Significant international tension over the water of Euphrates and Tigris did not occur before the 1970s, when the first large were constructed on the Euphrates. Large dams impact rivers unlike any other freshwater development. They change the most essential characteristic of a : its flow. While early dams were too small to form extensive enough to significantly affect a river’s flow, technological advances in the early 20th century enabled humans to build dams large enough to fundamentally alter a river’s flow regime. Dams of such scale are generally referred to as ‘large dams’.1 The first that could be described as a large dam in this sense is the Hoover Dam built in the United States on the Colorado river in the 1930s. Construction of the first large dam in the Euphrates- Tigris river system, the Turkish on the Euphrates, began in 1966.

1 Dams with a height of at least 15 m or with a capacity of at least 3 mcm are considered as large dams; World Commission on Dams (WCD), “Dams and Develop­ ment, A new Framework for Decision-Making”, The Report of the World Commission on Dams, 2000, 11. 146 nicolas bremer

Syria followed shortly after, in 1968, and took up construction of the on the Euphrates. These dams and those subsequently erected on Euphrates and Tigris substantially altered the natural flow regime of Euphrates and Tigris and enabled the riparian states2 to noticeably influence the rivers’ flow. This potential to change the rivers’ flow is one of the core factors of the tensions over the of the Euphrates and Tigris. Another key issue is the huge amount of freshwater the states will require to operate their and hydro-electric developments. The water demand of the Iraqi, Syrian and Turkish freshwater developments planned on the Euphrates are estimated to by far exceed the flow of the river and those of the Tigris will require close to its total flow. At the center of these developments, again, are dams. Thus, dams are at the heart of the dispute over the waters of the Euphrates and Tigris. Therefore this contribution seeks to introduce the reader to the large dams built and planned on Euphrates and Tigris and the freshwater developments they supply, their impact on the rivers and specifically the regulation of such developments under international law. The contribution will first give an over- view of the uses and impacts of large dam projects and the conflict over dams in the Euphrates-Tigris region. The second section will then discuss the extent to which large dam projects are regulated by international law. To further illustrate such regulation and its acceptance by the Euphrates-Tigris riparian states, spe- cific dam projects constructed and planned on Euphrates and Tigris will be used as examples when discussing the international law on non-navigational uses of freshwater.

2 Euphrates and Tigris spring from the mountains of southeastern Anatolia. The Euphra­ tes then flows through northern Syria and Iraq, while the Tigris merely touches Syria on a short stretch where it forms the border between Syria and before it enters Iraq. In southern Iraq the two rivers enter the aquifer of the Mesopotamian Marshlands and just north of Basra they join to form the Shatt al-Arab and discharge into the Per­ sian Gulf. Since the Tigris receives significant tributaries from rivers that originate in the Iranian and the Shatt al-Arab is in part a border river between and Iraq, Iran also is a riparian state of the Euphrates-Tigris river system. In addi­ tion, the Euphrates feeds groundwater reservoirs in and and the Shatt al-Arab aquifer extends onto Kuwaiti territory. Hence Jordan, and Saudi Arabia are riparian states of the Euphrates-Tigris river system’s aquifer. Still, since the interests of Iraq, Syria and Turkey in the Euphrates-Tigris river system far exceed those of Iran, Jordan, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia this contribution will focus on Iraq, Syria and Turkey. The term ‘riparian states’ when used in reference to Euphrates and Tigris is, therefore, to be understood as referring to Iraq, Syria and Turkey. For an overview of the course of Euphrates and Tigris and the interests their riparian states have in their use see inter alia FAO, “Irrigation in the , Region in Figures, Aquastat Survey 2008”, FAO Water Report 34 (2009), 65; D. Altinbilek, “Development and Management of the Euphrates-Tigris Basin”, Int’l J. Water Res. Devel. 20 (2004), 15 (18).