Scales of justice. Large dams and water rights in the Tigris–Euphrates basin

Abstract

Abstract The paper explores the politics of scale associated with the top-down planning of large hydraulic infrastructures in the Tigris–Euphrates basin. Against the backdrop of a worsening water crisis and the lack of cooperation between riparian countries, dams and reservoirs across the transboundary river system are sites of contestation between competing claims over dwindling and disputed resources. Drawing on post-structuralist insights from human geography on the politics of scale and the literature on megaprojects, it is argued here that hydraulic infrastructures are materially and discursively implicated in the construction of waterscapes at different scales to sustain broader political imaginaries. Based on ethnographic fieldwork and with a focus on the autonomous Region of Kurdistan in Iraq, the analysis juxtaposes the narratives deployed by state- and non-state actors to support or counter the development of additional dams. While, on the one hand, the Kurdistan Regional Government portrays hydraulic infrastructures as a vital source of security and well-being within the overarching nationalist narrative of Kurdish self-determination, on the other hand, transnational civil society groups under the umbrella of the Save the Tigris and Iraqi Marshes Campaign have mobilized against the adverse impact of megaprojects and appealed to the common Mesopotamian heritage in order to de-escalate political tensions within the transboundary river basin. In both cases, hydraulic infrastructures provide a framework for political action to secure recognition of rights and assert the appropriate scale of governance. Furthermore, bottom-up resistance is accompanied by the promotion of a participatory and inclusive approach to shared waters. From this perspective, the spatial politics of megaprojects intersect with issues of identity, equity, and sustainability.