A River Ran Through It

What would you do if your city’s livelihood suddenly dried up? Students in Khanaqin, Iraq faced this very question after their city’s river disappeared due to a dam that was built in Iran. They took their voices all the way to the Kurdish Parliament— this is their story.

Until recently agriculture was a main source of income for many of the people of Khanaqin. The climate was dry but the Alwand River flowed through providing the water needed to grow crops. The river also gave the city a source of drinking water, fish, and recreation.

Then a dam was built upstream in Iran. The water stopped flowing and the riverbed and fields became dry. Many of the townspeople lost their livelihood and were forced to flee to find food and a living elsewhere.

Many other towns along the path of the river, which originates deep in the mountains of Iran and empties into the Persian Gulf, also lost their sources of livelihood due to the river’s disappearance.

According to international law it is illegal to monopolize the use of a shared resource that crosses borders. Iran was perhaps unwittingly violating human rights however they seemed unperturbed by the struggles they had induced. The struggling people downstream were angry but did not know what to do.

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Enter Omar W, a Global Citizen Corps leader. He and a group of fellow students created a plan to get their story heard and to inspire action. They visited 22 affected villages along the river path and compiled a list of data. In the areas they visited they found that with the river gone, agriculture as the main source of income, had dropped from 95% of people to around 5 % and 43 families had to emigrate from the area due to drought.

Then they gathered more than 100 people and 15 international channels for a conference called “Restoring Life to the Alwand River.” The conference produced a set of ideas on how to proceed. First: Request a meeting with the Kurdish Parliament. Next: Try to get media coverage and political pressure on Iran increased. And finally: consider the construction of their own dam on the Iraqi side of the border to trap any water still trickling and save it for summer.

It is not easy to get a meeting with anyone from the Parliament. Omar and the group made many phone calls requesting some face time and finally a meeting with Dr. Arsalan Baiz, the Vice President of the Parliament was granted with only 12 hours notice. They were a 9 hour car-trip away but packed up quickly and drove all night to the Kurdish Capital making sure their statements and requests were just right on the way.

The ideas from the conference were discussed with Dr. Arsalan along with the possibility of securing annual water ratios and potential compensation for the affected areas. The Vice President thanked the group and promised to

take their issues before the entire parliament.

Omar and those who joined him for the cause left very proud of all they had been able to accomplish. They felt a new sense of empowerment—that they could really make a difference.

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