Turkish Engineer Training in Mediation and Conflict Resolution

Turkish Engineers' Training in USA Includes Mediation and Conflict Resolution

Last fall, the US-based NGO HASNA brought a team of young irrigation engineers from southeastern Turkey to the United States for an intensive program of technical and mediation training. Their goal was to strengthen the capacity of Water User Associations (WUAs) to enable them to have a wider impact on their communities. HASNA organized the training in partnership with the Turkish Rural and Urban Development Foundation (RUDF) and the administration of the Southeastern Anatolia Project (GAP).

Bordering Syria and Iraq to the south, southeastern Turkey is largely rural and very poor. In its harsh climate, subsistence farming is still prevalent, land distribution is uneven, and the communication and transportation infrastructure is poor. The region's population of about 6 million (Turkey's national population is 67 million) remains heterogeneous, with major Turkish, Kurdish, and Arab communities. Civil unrest in southeastern Turkey has led to the deaths of more than 26,000 people in the region.

In the 1970's the Turkish government launched the GAP, a series of dam and irrigation projects on the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, in the areas where the majority of Turkey's Kurdish population lives. GAP was transformed into a comprehensive socioeconomic development program to address the civil unrest in the region through employment, land reform, and integration into the national economy. At an estimated final cost of $32 billion—of which about half has already been invested, primarily by the Turkish government—GAP is the biggest regional development program in Turkey's history.

The project's focus is on expanding irrigation schemes, under the assumption that a more productive, equitable, and sustainable agriculture base will transform the social as well as economic landscape of the region. Ultimately, 1.7 million hectares of land in the GAP region will be under irrigation, comprising almost 20% of the total irrigated land in Turkey.

Trainees are junior irrigation technicians who work for WUAs in the region. The technicians, who have degrees from Turkish universities, are responsible for managing and distributing irrigation water to farmers, advising on improved irrigation and cultivation methods, and assisting with planning and profitability.

HASNA hopes to help this diverse group of young leaders to pursue the promise of participatory development in Southeastern Turkey. Training included mediation and conflict resolution, four weeks of intensive English, and the use of computers and the Internet.

Four weeks of technical training on irrigation systems and water management, in the state of Arizona, emphasized cooperative approaches and problem solving. Trainees visited a range of facilities, including the Salt River Project, which provides water and electric energy to Central Arizona, and several irrigation districts in Arizona and southern California.

For more information contact:

Mr. Crispin Rigby
3917 Ingomar Street, NW
Washington, DC 20015 USA
Phone: +1 202 362-4593
Fax: +1 202 362-6738
email: hasna@hasna.org
Internet: http://www.hasna.org