Today we received this message from Johanna Rivera, from the Iraqi Civil Society Solidarity Initiative. We had the pleasure to meet Johanna last March in the World Social Forum in Tunis where we prepared and carried out a joint workshop about the consequences of dam and mine projects around the world.
Please support this struggle to save the Tigris by reading on, watching and sharing the video.
Johanna wrote:
On 22 March, the world celebrates World Water Day. To mark this day, the Save the Tigris and Iraqi Marshes Campaign will launch 2 events.
In Baghdad, we will be holding a conference in cooperation with the Iraqi Social Forum, to discuss Iraq’s national water policies, and the impacts of the Ilisu dam in Iraq. The conference is made possible with support of by the Baghdad Provincial Council. The conference: “Saving Tigris is your duty, and mine” will be held at the Baghdad International Hotel.
On the occasion of World Water Day, the Save the Tigris Campaign will launch a 9-minute video in English and Arabic as an advocacy tool and to bring attention to the campaign’s advocacy work being done in Iraq. The video introduces the natural beauty, people, culture, and historic significance of the Iraqi marshes in the Iraqi southeast, between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers – a civilization of marsh Arabs dating back continuously over 5,000 years to the Sumerian people. Saddam Hussein’s regime drained the marshes in 1993, but they were restored by local people after 2003, only to be threatened again by the Ilisu dam, now under construction on the Tigris River in Turkey, in violation of customary international law. In January 2014, UNESCO has accepted the submission of the file from the Iraqi Government to consider the Iraqi Marshes a World Heritage Site.
We will share this video on our website, social media pages as well as with our friends and partners. as well as on Facebook and Twitter. On Twitter, we will be using the hashtags #Save_the_Tigris_Campaign, #WorldWaterDay, #Ilisu in our posts in order to stimulate a debate on the issue of the Ilisu Dam. In addition, these are popular hashtags we can ride on in posts: #climate, #globalwarming, #drought, #socialgood, #cause, #4change. Share our posts and be part of the debate!We encourage you to spread it among your networks, to draw attention to the threat of Ilisu dam to the Iraqi Marshes and to Iraqi water resources.
Please take this opportunity to enter an incredible part of the world, meet some its people, and appreciate the threat now looming over this unique treasure of nature and civilization.
The Save the Tigris Campaign wishes you a happy World Water Day!
Best regards,
Save the Tigris Campaign.
—
Johanna L. Rivera
Iraqi Civil Society Solidarity Initiative
Further reading
Protecting the Mesopotamian Marshes from the Ilisu Dam
Save Tigris and Iraqi Marshes Campaign
