The Battle for Mosul Dam in Iraq Raging

Conflict in Iraq Over Control of the Mosul Dam Impounds 11 Cubic Kilometres of Water and Controls Water Levels and Supplies Across the Country

Exactly a year ago, the world was wrestling with the possibility of another US-led military assault on an Arab state, following thehorrific gas attacksin Damascus, Syria.

When US military action did come in early August this year, it was in northern Iraq against the Islamic State (IS) whichevolved out of the Syrian civil war.

In the context of the spiralling humanitarian crisis, swift and co-ordinated IS advances, and single acts of astonishing barbarity,ongoing US attackshave become focused oncontrol of a dam.

It's the latest and most visible chapter in the world's growing water crisis and confirmation ofwater's central role in conflicts.

11 cubic kilometres of water

The Mosul Dam blocks the Tigris River south of the Turkish border, forming a reservoir 11 billion cubic metres in volume - the fourth largest in the Middle East.

Much of the military rhetoric has focused on the potential for deliberate destruction of the structure, releasingcatastrophic flood wavesreaching 4.6m high as far downstream as Baghdad, 350km away. But politically and economically it is the control of the dam's hydroelectricity which gives it priority.

Engineers, meanwhile, noting the reservoir's unorthodox setting (onwater-soluble karstic geology) fear an accidental breach of the dam ifvital geotechnical work, including continuous injection of impermeable grout, is not properly maintained.

Water as political and military power

Strategically, the use of the dam to determine water levels and supplies to large parts of the country makes it the largest prize in what security analysts describe as a "battle for control of water" which many observers see asdefining IS's aimsin Iraq.

This plan was evident as early as June this year, following extensive flooding caused by thedeliberate closureof the captured Nuaimiyah Dam west of Baghdad.

But this is not the first time water has been used as a weapon in the 'Fertile Crescent' at the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.

Saddam Hussein targeted water resources during the Iran-Iraq War and his oppression of the Marsh Arabs in southern Iraq during the 1990s centred on the drainage of 6,000 km2 of wetlands, destroying a subsistence economy perhaps 10,000 years old.

This was a "war by other means" , according to engineerAzzamAlwash, who won the 2013 Goldman Environmental prize for his post-2003 work tore-establish the marshlands.

The tactical use of water supplies in war dates back almost as far as civilisation itself. Limiting and depleting water supplies has been used as a siege weaponthroughout history. The 'Dambusters' are even part of the UK's popular cultural memory of World War Two.

Source: The Ecologist

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• Water Supply
• Water Risk
• Dams