A Watershed Moment for Iraqi Kurdistan: Subnational Hydropolitics and Regional Stability

May 24, 2018 | Marcus King
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Iraqi Kurdistan is blessed with abundant water resources, but these resources are under increasing stress. Changing demographics, dam building in neighboring countries, and drought have driven Kurdish hydropolitics to a critical juncture where two distinct water futures are possible—and both have implications for regional stability and for U.S. interests. As water in the Euphrates and Tigris river basin becomes more polluted and scarce, residents of southern Iraq blame overuse by the upstream Kurds. This perception could be enough to erode the already-frayed working relationship between Kurdish and Iraqi leaders. At the same time, tensions over water are rising between indigenous Kurds and displaced people seeking refuge from the wars in Iraq and Syria. While research by preeminent scholars finds that water issues are almost always managed cooperatively, I argue that Kurdistan’s regional hydropolitics puts it at higher risk of conflict over water resources. To avoid instability, the Kurdistan government needs to develop a more forward-looking national water policy that responds to these growing hydropolitical trends.