Mesopotamian Water Forum to be held in Sulaymaniyah

Date has been announced for the first civil society forum on water in the Middle East: the Mesopotamian Water Forum.

The Mesopotamian Water Forum will be held between March 29-31, 2019 in Silemani (Sulaymaniyah) in South (Iraqi) Kurdistan and organized by civil society actors from the states of Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria. Among them particularly the Save the Tigris and Iraqi Marshes Campaign need to be mentioned.

The forum will be an open space for all who are interested in social and ecological alternatives on the management of the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers and their tributories. The marginalized and excluded people from the Mesopotamia region will discuss with academicians, municipalities, local activists and NGO representatives (also from other regions) how the ongoing destruction can be limited and stoped and how the right to water for all people can be achieved in short and long term. We consider water as a tool for cooperation and peace among all ethnicities, religions and social groups in the whole Mesopotamia region which is affected heavily also by wars.

Save the Tigris group invited everybody to contribute to the main papers of the three main topics of the conference (Dams, pollution and community water management) which will be published in advance of the event to kickstart the discussions.

The Mesopotamian Water Forum is an alternative civil society forum for water, an open space to give voice to those who are marginalized and excluded from the discussion about water management in the Mesopotamian region.

The Mesopotamian Water Forum is based on the social forum model, and is part of the global world social forum process. The idea of the forum was launched during a joint meeting of Save the Tigris Campaign in the city of Sulaymaniyah, Kurdistan Region of Iraq, in April 2017.

The preliminary program of the first International Mesopotamian Water Forum:

Day 1: Opening and plenary discussions

Day 2: Self-organized workshops by participating organizations

Day 3: Plenary workshops conclusions and final declaration

Registration for the Forum will open in December 2018.