Book review: Water threatens to disrupt Iraqi-Kurdish-Turkish relations

Diminishing sources of clean water and rising demand could increase tension between Baghdad and Erbil, as well as Baghdad and Ankara, a new book says

Water has been a headache for Iraq since the late 1970s, when Turkey began building huge dams on the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in the southeast of the country for irrigation and hydroelectric power generation. The dams reduced the flow of the two rivers beyond the Turkish border, raising fears in Baghdad as well as Damascus that Ankara might one day turn off the tap. Turkey is certainly able to control how much river water Iraq and Syria receive (the Euphrates flows through Syria before reaching Iraq). With Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan still in the mood for expansionist adventures, Syrian and Iraqi leaders might well be justified in feeling nervous.