As the effects of the climate crisis spread across the world, in the geography of Kurdistan, the crisis is extending beyond the limits of nature and turning directly into political and social devastation. Contrary to the promises of “prosperity” made for decades under the Southeastern Anatolia Project (GAP), security-oriented dam policies, unfinished irrigation canals, and uncontrolled groundwater consumption are gradually pushing the region toward disaster.
From Amed (tr: Diyarbakır) to Urfa, from Mardin to Şırnak, farmers across Kurdistan’s most fertile plains are no longer facing merely meteorological drought, but a profound hydrological crisis in which water resources are being depleted, farmland is being left idle due to debt and water scarcity, and villages are once again being forced into abandonment. In these lands, where water has become an instrument of control and policy, what is happening is not only causing a decline in agricultural production; it is also becoming the story of a people being uprooted from their land, their memory, and their living spaces.
Across the plains stretching from Amed to Urfa, from Mardin to Şırnak, farmers no longer look to the sky, but to the depth of the water in their wells. In these lands, regarded as the agricultural heartland of Kurdistan, drought has developed into a crisis intertwined with excessive groundwater extraction and the state’s dam policies. The result is shrinking harvests, producers falling deeper into debt, and thousands of families leaving their villages.
Deeper wells, receding waters
Agricultural irrigation across much of the region now depends not on rainfall or surface water, but on groundwater extraction. In Amed, Urfa, Mardin, Batman, Siirt, and Şırnak, years of excessive groundwater use have pushed the water table deeper with each passing year. Farmers are trying to reach water with pumps that must be lowered further every year. This, in turn, increases both costs and the pressure on groundwater resources.
These areas are not experiencing merely meteorological drought; they are being pushed toward a more persistent and dangerous stage: hydrological drought. This means a significant decline in water levels in both surface and underground reserves, including lakes, rivers, reservoirs, and groundwater, as a result of reduced rainfall. At this stage, as declining precipitation also prevents groundwater and rivers from being adequately replenished, the traditional practice of pumping water from underground to irrigate fields is becoming increasingly unsustainable.
The gap between GAP’s promise and the reality on the plains
Under the Southeastern Anatolia Project (GAP), plans were made to construct 22 dams and 19 hydroelectric power plants in the region and bring 1.8 million hectares of land under irrigation. However, despite the project having been underway for decades, a large portion of the irrigation networks has still not been completed. Irrigation canals covering 47,000 hectares in Urfa, 26,000 hectares in Mardin, and 76,000 hectares in Amed, which have been completed but are still awaiting commissioning, have for years been listed by officials among the investments that “urgently need to be put into operation.”
As long as these canals remain out of operation, the same areas continue to be irrigated with groundwater. On the one hand, Kurdistan’s natural environment is being devastated by dams; on the other, farmers are being left at a disadvantage, while the dams that have been built serve only to generate revenue for the state treasury.
Criticism from circles close to the people of Kurdistan and ecological organizations, however, is directed at the project itself. According to them, from its inception, GAP evolved into an energy and security project that disregarded the Kurds’ living spaces, history, and natural environment. The Ilısu Dam, which led to the flooding of 12,000-year-old Hasankeyf, lies at the heart of these criticisms. They argue that the dams have brought not the prosperity promised to farmers, but dependence on rain-fed agriculture.
The same groups argue that the chain of dams along the Tigris delays the river’s flow, disrupting its natural replenishment cycle and further reducing the amount of water reaching agricultural land during periods of drought.
Harvest shrinks, debt grows
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