ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Kurdish farmers from the village of Segirka in Turkey’s southeastern Batman province have worked around the clock for years, borrowing money from the government and selling their wives’ gold to establish greenhouses. However, a newly-built dam in the region has flooded the area, putting their livelihoods at dire risk. The Turkish government approved the building of Ilisu Dam on the Tigris river in the southeast of the country in 1997, with the stated aim of generating electricity for the region, creating jobs and boosting the local economy. However, the decision has uprooted thousands of people from nearly 200 villages, as it submerges the affected area a further 15 centimeters per day. The dam forms part of the far-reaching Southeastern Anatolian Project (GAP), the largest and costliest project in Turkey’s history which aims to boost revenue in the poverty-stricken area, but has driven locals away from their livelihoods instead. Farmers in the Kurdish village of Segirka have depended on selling agricultural produce as their livelihoods for decades. They established some 200 greenhouses over the years, largely planting cucumbers, tomatoes and peppers for the latest harvest. Due to its proximity to the dam, the rising water levels gradually approached the village starting in late May. By July, it reached the new greenhouses, damaging the produce of more than 100. Farmer Ishan Sonmez planted 600 tons of cucumbers, tomatoes and peppers this year. After the flooding, he can sell none of it. “We have worked over the last five years to establish the greenhouses … and invested a huge amount of money in them, but now they have all fallen under water. We are victims!” he told Rudaw. The government has not sent any teams to estimate the losses or promise compensation. Some farmers have borrowed large amounts of money from the government, but without selling their vegetables, they cannot pay it now. “The government has to come here and compensate us so that we can pay our debts. Otherwise, we will be in great loss,” Islam Us told Rudaw. Weysi Yildirim, another flood victim, said “all our produce is now below water. Had they informed us that there would be water, we would not sell our gold and go into debt.” Lokman Madakol, another greenhouse owner, says the farmers are helpless now: “we have opened our hands because only God can help us.” The Kurdish historic town of Hasankeyf has also been submerged by the dam. Its residents visited the town in late February to bid a painful farewell. Additional reporting by Mashallah Dakkak from Segirka village
