People of Iraq Campaign to Save Tigris "P.I.C.S.T"

Über uns

Background:

P.I.C.S.T is an Iraqi initiative independent formed an alliance with regional organizations to launch a global campaign to stop building of the Turkish Ilisu dam due to its negative economical & environmental impacts on life of the people who live in the riparian States on Tigris "Iraq, Turkey, Iran, and Syria" especially all those who dwell on its banks.
Our love and fear for the future of our country is what we gathered for releasing this campaign to avert the population who live on the Tigris basin the danger of drought.

Goals:

1-Create a mobility popular, government and international levels, in addition to the virtual world pages on the Internet.
2- Awareness the citizen of dangerous consequences of Ilisu construction dam and co-operation with the Iraqi related official and concerned organizations for World Heritage to work together to urge the Turkish government to abide by the riparian States treaty which gives the right to share a quota of water between the upstream and downstream states, and not to damage historical sites of the Tigris River basin.
3- Urging the satellite channels, newspapers, radio local & international stations to play a role in shedding light on the campaign, and motivating citizens to participate in saving the land of Mesopotamia from drought risks.

Activities:

• We gathered information as possible, data, studies, and save documents in the Group page on Facebook so as to be easily accessed and viewed by all members. These related documents explain the negative impacts that would result after the completion of construction of the dam, environmentally, socially and economically.
• P.I.C.S.T is trying to urge Iraqi citizens to sign on the electronic voting links that are launched by a number of organizations with whom we work then we will send letters with attached signed petitions to the UNESCO for including the Tigris River and the Iraqi marshlands in the list of nature reserves and World Heritage, As well as we address these letters to Group "Andrtz" Austrian, which is the largest joint-stock company in the construction process of Turkish Ilisu dam.
• The activists of P.I.C.S.T campaign are collecting signatures from different parts of Iraq because most of people do not have internet and they cannot vote electronically, therefore, the campaign seeks to reach to the furthest point in the country, to enable all Iraqis to vote on the protection of the land of Mesopotamia from the danger that threatened.

Officially we are working within the system of regional common of supporting organizations and sponsors of this movement are:
• Iraq Civil Society Solidarity Initiative "ICSSI".
• Initiative to keep Hasankeyf alive\batman\ turkey.
• The centre for sustainable development "CENESTA".
• 350 organization.
• Civil development organization, Sulaimaniah \ Iraq-KRG "CDO".
• Baghdad Marathon.
• People of Iraq Campaign to Save Tigris "P.I.C.S.T".

There are cooperation agreements between our group and these organizations and the regional representative of P.I.C.S.T attend the joint conference that held on 12th of July, as powered by the campaign.

The results for the joint conference:
Open Letters Sent to the Andritz Company and to Iraqi Government Leaders and Members of Parliament Concerning Our Urgent Demands.
To all who are concerned about saving the Tigris River and the Marshes and to all who have supported this campaign and signed our letters and petitions:
Iraqis have demonstrated a great interest and consciousness about the Campaign to save the Tigris River and the Marshes.
We have a great responsibility to raise their voices before all stakeholders. The crisis of water resources in Iraq also affects Iran, Syria, and Turkey. Huge efforts will be required to work with all these countries. This campaign focuses specifically on the negative impacts that the construction of the Ilisu Dam will have, especially the great damage it will do to the Tigris River and the Marshes.
Therefore, we are sharing the actions we have taken and the demands we have made:
A) Our first open letter is addressed to the Andritz Company (from Austria) and has been signed by 4200 organizations and individuals. We are asking Andritz to respect international law and suspend its work on this dam immediately until an independent study can be conducted concerning its social, economic, and environmental consequences on the Iraqi side.

B) Our second letter has been signed by 3502 Iraqi organisations and civil society activists and is addressed to the following Iraqi authorities:

The Iraqi President Jalal Talabani,
• The Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki, and through him to all relevant government representatives and members of the Iraqi Parliament,
• The Speaker of the Council of Representatives of Iraq Osama Nejaifi and through him to all members of the Iraqi Parliament



In this letter Iraqis are demanding:

• The establishment of a water crisis group that includes water and environment experts, government, parliament and civil society representatives that will immediately negotiate with Turkey to suspend work on the Ilisu Dam until a thorough study is made concerning its impacts in Iraq.
• That the Iraqi government adopt the letter to the Andritz Company and also make a strategic plan that includes legal action, to hold Andritz, the banks and all others companies or contractors that are involved in the construction of the dam accountable for all damage and harmful effects the dam has.
• We ask the Iraqi government to adopt our campaign to Save the Tigris River and the Marshes.
• We demand that the Committee for the Submission of the Central Marshes to UNESCO present its proposals to the Iraqi public with a detailed plan and schedule for submission for the Central Marshes to be recognized as a World Heritage site and a national park, no later than June 2013.

• Finally we declare that our campaign will continue and we will go on collecting signatures until our demands have been have been fully and properly considered. We call upon all responsible media to support this campaign. We are sure that saving the Tigris River and the Marshes, and protecting the Iraqi people's water rights are vital and important issues for Iraqi media.



Action steps:
•
• Electronic voting:
o http://www.change.org/petitions/unesco-world-heritage-committee-save-world-heritage-on-the-tigris-river-in-mesopotamia?utm_medium=facebook&utm_source=share_petition&utm_term=share_with_facebook_friends
o The second link is an Arabic letter to Mr. Wolfgang Leitner, the head of Group "Andrtz" that supervise on the Turkish Ilisu dam constructions.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dE1lYkRfd0tYWUwzTDJ5QnNDQjA2aEE6MQ&fb_source=message#gid=0

• Manual voting:
Is an initiative network by civil activists who are collecting the signatures in the universities, markets and cultural centers.

• Media: "satellite channels, newspapers, radio local & international stations.




For further information:
P.I.C.S.T Page on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/Tigrisxilleso/
Mr. Salam Taha \ admin of P.I.C.S.T
https://www.facebook.com/salam.taha.583
Mrs. Nadia Al-Baghdady \Representative of P.I.C.S.T in Iraq:
nadia.abbas.50@facebook.com
nadiaalbaghdady@yahoo.com
Cell phone #:0096477-0779-2051
Miss Noor Alanbaky \ Representative of P.I.C.S.T in UAE:
noor.alanbaky@facebook.com
Miss Shayma'a Mohammed \Liaison Officer
International & Regional organizations Cooperation Dept. in “P.I.C.S.T”
shaymaa_mohammed@aol.com