Great explorers, archeologists, and historians have described Kurdistan geographically, historically, and socially as one of the richest lands on Earth. With its magnificent geography, ancient history, and earliest empires, Kurdistan justifies what many have come to describe as the Fertile Crescent, fruit basket of Middle East, and Cradle of civilization. Kurdistan is where for the first time many things happened in the history of humanity. It is where for the first time humans started cultivating, domesticating, and settling. Flourishing with flowing rivers, Kurdistan is where the first villages, cities, and empires in the world were established. From the inventions of early arts to the first system of writing, Kurdistan can be called the national Museum of Humanity. Every place in Kurdistan is a piece that completes the entire archeological site. As stated by Professor Mehrdad Izady, the 9th edition of Encyclopedia Britannica defines Kurdistan as the only place in Middle East that “…deserves a more careful scrutiny and promises a richer harvest to the antiquarian explorer than the lands inhabited by the Kurds, from Erzeroum to Kirmanshah.”

Although these reasons verify why such places deserve to be reserved not only for the people of Kurdistan, but also for the entire world; the controlling states of Kurdistan have tried to build a dam in every river in Kurdistan and the process is never-ending. For centuries, Kurdistan has provided the greater Middle East with large amounts of crops, fruits, and wheat. However, today the governments of the controlling states want Kurdistan to become a power station and provide them with cheap electricity by building some of the largest dams in the world. It is well-known that every dam built drowns large parts of river basin. In the case of Kurdistan, the valleys were home to some of the earliest and most ancient kingdoms in the world that have been preserved until recent times.

While dams have many advantages for a state and its people such as providing electricity, consistent water supply, and agricultural land; they also have many disadvantages including the displacement of thousands of people, their homes and properties, and large communities that may or may never be compensated for their cultural and historical losses. Even though the controlling states of Kurdistan have been rushing the creation of these dams to provide for their needs, they have been careless when it comes to studying and recording the archeological and historical facts of these places before drowning them and losing them forever. After the second half of the 20th century, Iraq was rushing to create a number of dams on the rivers of Kurdistan to supply its demands in other Iraqi cities like Baghdad. The Iraqi Regime was not concerned about the great potential losses of Kurdish history and culture in these places where the process of drowning lands was faster than any possible archeological effort to save what could have been saved. For example, the creation of Dokan Dam on the lesser Zab destroyed most of Raniya plains, including Shemshara Mountain, which was home to some of the most prehistoric civilizations in the world. Professor Mehrdad Izady explains the flooding of Raniya plain as, “…forever eliminating the chance of uncovering any direct information about those two kingdoms [Simurrum and Kharkhar] from the Hurrian phase of Kurdish history.”

When the creation of any dams is proposed, governments of the controlling states of Kurdistan have promised agricultural development and power supply for the nourishment of undeveloped Kurdish cities. The outcomes however, have usually not been what these governments claimed they would be. For instance, when the Southeastern Anatolian Project in Turkey (better known as the GAP project) was proposed, the Turkish government made claims that there would be great advantages to the development of Kurdish cities. The outcomes however proved to be less true. The negative effects on the productivity of the nearby farms were much higher in comparison to the proposed benefits of the GAP project.

The controlling states of Kurdistan have also come to use the creation of these dams to control Kurdistan and destroy all the archeological evidence that prove the existence of Kurds in Kurdistan for thousands of years. As though the Dokan, Darbandikhan, and Hamrin Dams had not destroyed enough history, the Iraqi Ba’ath Regime planned the creation of Bekhma Dam near the well-organized Barzan region in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Their plan was to divide Southern Kurdistan by the creation of yet another dam on the Greater Zab. Their goal was to politically and militarily control one of the regions known for its resistance to the government. As part of their preparation for Bekhma Project in the 1980s, they destroyed thousands of villages and displaced thousands of more people. The completion of Bekhma Dam was stopped after Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait.

Today however, fifteen years after the liberation of Southern Kurdistan from the Iraqi dictatorship, the Kurdistan Regional Government with the help of allied forces and the international community have begun to rebuild the destroyed lands and finish the incomplete projects including Bekhma Dam. This Dam is planned to be the fourth largest dam in the world. It is considered to make 1300 MW of electricity that will provide for most of the necessities in Southern Kurdistan including power and water. With the liberation of Kurdistan and its resources from the control of the central government, the creation of a grand dam, such as Bekhma Dam, could become a turning point in the history of dam creation in Kurdistan.
Bekhma Dam is again a reality for the people residing near great Zab. After their return from the first displacement of the 1980s, the people of these regions will once again have to leave their homes. This time however, their move will be permanent. So the cost for creating this dam whether completed by the Iraqi government or the Kurdish Regional Government is the same. The only difference will be the distribution of its resources. When prior dams were built in Kurdistan, their resources were usually distributed among the more populated and developed cities of the region outside of Kurdistan. This time however, the test will be whether or not the Kurdish Regional Government will prioritize its resources to accomplish the most for Kurdistan.

If the Kurdish Regional Government is successful in the distribution of the Bekhma Dam resources locally, the needs of Kurdistan will be provided and will help it to become less dependent of the central government. It will also prevent the damming of other rivers in Kurdistan in the near future, which will maintain the statues of Kurdistan as the Cradle of civilization rather than a Power station.