CENTRAL NEWS – In an area of northern Syria, already struck by desertification which has been dramatically intensified by the global climate crisis, water is being used as a weapon of war. For the past eight years the region Rojava has been experimenting with building up an ecological and feminist system of self-governance. In this system, ordinary people make decisions about how their towns and neighbourhoods are run and women’s freedom is considered fundamental.
Turkey controls 90 per cent of the waterflow of the Euphrates, and around 44 per cent of the Tigris, the two main rivers of the region. Since 1992, the government has built 22 major dams which hold back the headwaters of these two great rivers.
Hêvin Şêyho, co-chair of the Autonomous Administration’s Environment and Local Governments Committee, slammed the Turkish state’s use of the Euphrates river as a weapon against the peoples of Northern and Eastern Syria and urged international institutions to stop Turkey.
RIVER IS POLLUTED
Hêvin Şêyho noted that the surrounding area of the river was extremely polluted with the decrease of water. Şêyho stated that the pollution around the river negatively affects human health and causes skin diseases adding that Kobanê and Deir ez-Zor are the most damaged areas.
ENVIRONMENTAL DAMAGE
Şêyho stated that water cuts have gradually increased since the beginning of the Syrian crisis: “80 percent of agricultural land has been affected by water shortage which brought the electricity generation to a halt. Most of the people in Northern and Eastern Syria earn their living from agriculture. Moreover, living creatures in the river take a hit from it. Some species of fish are in danger of extinction. Many projects of the Environment Committee were also stopped due to water shortage.”
Şêyho stressed that the Turkish state uses water as blackmail. “All international institutions and legal organizations should put pressure on the Turkish state to end this crime,” she added.
The Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria said in a statement that if the Turkish state continues to reduce the water level, a humanitarian crisis is likely to appear.
Turkey has dammed the rivers which flow from Turkey into Syria and Iraq, detaining water inside its own borders, causing a big reduction in the flow of water to the wider region – by an estimated 80 per cent to Iraq and by around 40 per cent to Syria.
In response to the ongoing crisis, UK-based co-operative the Solidarity Economy Association (SEA) has come together with a number of other international organizations and women’s structures in Rojava to launch a big crowdfunding campaign for water infrastructure and women’s co-operatives in the region. It aims to raise £100,000 ($123,463). The #Water4Rojava crowdfunding campaign launched on 16 May and reached £25,000 ($30,865) in the first week. The campaign is also being match funded up to the first £50,000 and is being supported by well-known figures, including British actress Maxine Peak, David Graeber, Debbie Bookchin, Janet Biehl and world-renowned photographer Joey Lawrence.
In the begging of the year, DW News made an article on the subject on their own website, “Problems with the supply from the nearest water station, Alouk, have been growing since Turkish forces and their Syrian rebel proxies took charge in October 2019, after the so-called Operation Peace Spring that targeted the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the region. While the water station has been under Turkish control since then, it relies on the SDF-controlled Mabrouka Electricity Station for its power. Turkey’s objective behind Operation Peace Spring was to create a 30-kilometer (19-mile) wide “safe zone” under Turkish control inside Syria.”
