What Iraq Needs More Than Oil

Oil isn't the only natural resource that matters in Iraq. Last month, the country announced it had begun receiving over 50 percent more water from the Euphrates River thanks to an upstream neighbor, Turkey.

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Mesopotamia was once home to muscular rulers who tamed the abundant waters of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, making possible a thriving, advanced civilization. As a result, Iraq always had more water than most other countries in the region. The only problem was how to store and distribute it, especially in drought years like the current one. But today, crumbled infrastructure and inefficient water management leave Iraq -- once a preferred backdrop for biblical flood sagas -- reliant on the flow from foreign reservoirs to keep its many wheat and barley farmers afloat.

And it's not the newly behind-the-scenes occupiers, the Americans, or even the Iranians that Iraq needs to woo for continued supply. It's Turkey, the other up-and-coming regional hegemon, that controls most of the floodgates.

Substitute Russia for Turkey and gas for water, and we'd be hearing all about another high-stakes struggle for natural resources. Periodic Russian threats to cut off pipelines have, after all, literally chilled some of its former satellites into compliance.

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The Last Straw
If you think these failed states look bad now, wait until the climate changes.
By Stephan Faris

So why hasn't the world heard more about the Middle East's water dynamics and the threat of "aquadictators"? For one thing, the kind of searing images that link oil riches to corruption and belligerence in the popular imagination don't readily accompany the politics of water. Cinematic depictions of aquapower (which have typically hovered in quality somewhere around Waterworld) are also wanting, unable to compete with movies like Syriana, which provides a complex look at Middle Eastern power politics.

But the imagery was always there; it was just waiting to be rediscovered. In fact, this age-old drama of scarcity was encapsulated decades ago in an almost-forgotten gem of Turkish cinema, lovingly restored by Martin Scorsese's World Cinema Foundation -- and now available to watch for free online. The film was apparently suppressed by the Turkish government shortly after it won the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival in 1964. Dry Summer reappears at an opportune time, both for modern-day comparisons and for another look at the rich social realism offered by the director, Metin Erksan. It deserves a receptive audience.

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