Inequalities in access are a major concern in the management of common pool resources. In the case of irrigation water, inequalities in access are mainly produced by various actors, power relations, institutions, and infrastructures. Launched in the 1970s, Turkey’s Southeastern Anatolia Project (GAP) aims to address the Kurdish question through economic development. The project involves 22 dams and 19 hydroelectric power plants on the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, with the goal of irrigating 1.8 million hectares of land. This ongoing initiative seeks to cover 46% of the planned irrigation canal areas. Ample scholarship exists on GAP’s adverse effects, such as village inundation, water deprivation for small farmers, and soil/nutrient loss. Examining the Qoser/Kızıltepe plain, we discuss impacts in areas where GAP is anticipated but not yet implemented, and where laws issued in the name of environmental protection overlap with infrastructures that monopolize access to water and energy. By focusing on farmer-built and farmer-managed irrigation infrastructures, such as boreholes, transformers, and solar panels, we unveil how farmers access water ‘illicitly’ in areas where the state did not build irrigation canals. Additionally, we explore how farmers resist not only state authority but also the climate crisis through self-built and self-governed irrigation infrastructures.
