In 2020 we participated in the Water for Rojava campaign with an economic donation. Water for Rojava was an international campaign in May-June 2020 to raise funds to restore drinking water and agricultural infrastructure of Northern and Eastern Syria according to ecological principles. The campaing was organized as a part of the Co-operation in Mesopotamia project of the international Solidarity Economy Association and in co-operation with the local environmental activists and officials of the Ecology Committee of the Autonomous Administration of Northern and Eastern Syria.
BACKGROUND
The ground water resources of Northern and Eastern Syria were rapidly diminishing in the end part of the 20th century when the Syrian state modernized (i.e. industrialized and monoculturized) the agriculture of the region. During the dictatorship of Hafez al-Assad the great plains were subjected to industrial wheat cultivation while the plantation of trees and other plants was criminalized. The destruction of water binding vegetation, such as forests, the plantation agriculture of weed, and the global climate change induced decrease in rain water had long-lasting and destructive imprint on the regions soil and ground waters. The region between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers is also known as the “fertile crescent” and birth place of agriculture. Having fed the peoples of the region for more than 10 000 years, under global capitalism and modern agricultural politics of the Syrian state the fertile crescent was driven to rapid impoverishment of the soil and desertation in a matter of only few decades.
In 2012 the so-called “Rojava Revolution” started in the region, and the central governance and military of the Syrian state withdrew. People of Northern and Eastern Syria started to build federalist and democratic self-government within which all the ethnical and religious groups could live side by side in the spirit of autonomy, self-determination and equality. The self-governance of neighbourhood assemblies, councils and their confederations is based on the principles of women’s liberation, ethnic and social diversity, direct democracy and ecology. Therefore, also the water problem started to be vigorously tackled since 2012.
The water situation of the region is still extremely fragile, due to continuous attacks against the Autonomous Administration of Northern and Eastern Syria by the terror organisation ISIS and the state Turkey. Because of its critical state, water was deployed as a weapong against the civilian population of the region. Most of the Northern Syrian water runs down from the Taurus mountains that are located in the territory of the Turkish state. With huge dam projects, Turkey has decreased the water flow to small fraction of its natural annual flow. During the Turkish occupation war that started in 2019, the Turkish military and mercenary forces have also destroyed the main water station (Alouk) and several other central water infrastructures of the region. By systematically attacking against the water infrastructure, Turkish state has attempted to destroy the local agriculture and livelihood of the peoples. These attacks are war crimes, but Turkish government was never held accountable for them.
With Water for Rojava campaign 100 000 £ (UK pounds) was raised to repaire the mass destruction caused by the Syrian civil war, monocultural and industrial agriculture and global climate change. Money was used also to reconstruct local drinking water and agricultural infrastructure as well as to soil and ground water recovery works. Funds were channelled through women’s co-operatives and democratic local municipalities in Rojava to projects like repairing infrastructure damaged by bombings, digging wells and building water pumps for refugee camps, as well as funding long-term projects like co-operative farm irrigation systems and river cleaning initiatives.