Turkish water pipeline causes dispute in Cyprus

In October the Turkish president Erdogan inaugurated a pipeline that brings water from the Alakopru dam in Turkey to the North of Cyprus. The project called ‘Peace Water’ provides northern Cyprus, which is under Turkish control, annually with 75 million cubic metres of fresh water. In the South of Cyprus, which is part of the EU, the Peace Water project is considered by protesters as a consolidation of the Turkish occupation.

The construction of the underwater pipeline started in 2011 and was completed in August 2015. The project costed about 500 million dollars. The pipeline with a total length of 80 kilometers recently started delivering water to Nicosia which is under the occupation of the Turkish army. According to Erdogan the whole of Cyprus will benefit from the new fresh water deliveries. Protesters state the new pipeline is not delivering enough water for the whole of Cyprus and therefore is only of interest for the Turkish part of Cyprus. The Greek island is suffering from severe droughts. The southern part of Cyprus gets its fresh water from four desalination plants and a dam network.