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A long-running conflict between Turkey and the independent Greek Cyprus is getting in the way of drought relief for the island. Reporter Joanna Kakissis explains.

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JEB SHARP:  Far from the arctic, the Mediterranean island nation of Cyprus badly needs water. It’s been fighting drought for years.  Cyprus’ neighbor, Turkey, meanwhile has water to spare.  Turkey is offering to share some of that water by way of a massive new undersea pipeline.  But there’s a hitch, Turkey has occupied northern Cyprus for decades.  So the government of independent Cyprus is spurning the offer.  Joanna Kakissis has our report.

JOANNA KAKISSIS:  Not far from Cyprus’ capital, Nicosia, Dimitris Ttelias opens the door to a shed housing a prized possession.  It’s a water pump.  It helps irrigate the potatoes, beets, and onions that Ttelias grows in his hilly village.  Ttelias is always worried he won’t have enough water.  He hates wasting even a drop.  It’s hard to farm in a place like Cyprus, he says.  He speaks Greek like most of his fellow Cypriots.  Soon, he says, we’re going to have to buy water from somewhere else.  We can’t leave the crops in the dry ground to die.  Cyprus is in the midst of one of the worst draughts in 100 years.  In what many scientists think is a long term shift to a drier climate.  Now Cyprus’ neighbor, Turkey, says it wants to help.  It plans to build an undersea water pipeline to Turkish northern Cyprus and it’s offering to sell some of the water to the republic.  But Ttelias isn’t interested.  I’d rather abandon my crops than use their water he says.  Unlike most other countries in this part of the world, Turkey still has plenty of water.  But for Greek Cypriots, Turkey is also an aggressor.  Turkey has occupied the north of Cyprus since it invaded the country in 1974.  So it’s no surprise that the south doesn’t trust Turkey’s motives.  Sophocles Aletraris is the Director of the Cyprus Water Development department.

SOPHOCLES ALETRARIS:  I believe that it’s either a very naïve project, or is pure propaganda.  Because we have been hearing about this project for the last 15 years or so.  It is nothing that is do-able.

KAKISSIS: But the Turkish government now says the pipeline is do-able and it plans to build it by 2012.  It would be an ambitious project.

MUSTAPHA SIDAL:  It is the biggest in the world, undersea.

KAKISSIS: That’s Mustapha Sidal, a former water services director in northern Cyprus.  The pipeline would cross 48 miles of the Mediterranean through very deep water.

SIDAL:  Nobody tried it before.  There is many pipes in the sea, but also deep.

KAKISSIS: Turkey would give the water to the north and sell it to the south.  Turkey’s Premiere has even dubbed the project Water for Peace, a gesture toward reconciliation with the Greek Cypriots.  And Mustapha Sidal says it could be a model for helping to meet water needs elsewhere in the region.

SIDAL:  If they manage it would be a solution for the other countries.

KAKISSIS: Turkish Cypriots are just hoping it will be a solution for them.  The pipeline would end at a reservoir next to the village of Gecitkoy.  It’s a cluster of tiny stone houses on rolling grassland, where Volkan Ozeryali raises ducks and chickens and grows vegetables.  Like his counterparts in Greek Cyprus, Ozeryali is careful about using water.  During last year’s drought, he says the reservoir dropped to less than half its capacity.  Nothing grew.  People panicked.  They needed to import their fruits and vegetables from other countries, Ozeryali says.  It also affected livestock since animals had nothing to eat.  Below the Gecitkoy reservoir, there’s a Turkish flag and likeness of Turkish hero Kemal Ataturk emblazoned on the earthen dam.  It’s where Ozeryali’s neighbor Senol Akhmehmet grazes his goats.  Last year he says a group of Turkish engineers came here and worked for six months.  He says they told him not to worry.  Cyprus will never run out of water, Akhmehmet says the engineers told him because there’s always Turkey.  Turkey will give us water.  Of course, whether the pipeline will ever be built is still uncertain.  But if it is, it would tie northern Cyprus even more closely to Turkey.  That’s part of the reason the Republic of Cyprus wants no part of it.  Sophocles Aletraris, Cyprus’ water director, says the republic is also wary of relying on Turkey for its lifeline.

ALETRARIS:  We cannot depend on a country that is hostile with Cyprus.  We cannot jeopardize the whole island if Turkey decides all of a sudden to cut off the pipeline.

KAKISSIS: Instead, the republic is looking at other options.  It’s already built two desalination plants to tape the Mediterranean Sea that surrounds Cyprus and it’s planning a third.  Back on his farm, west of Nicosia, Dimitris Ttelias ponders his country’s future as he washes some beets.  The only way he’d even consider buying Turkey’s water, he says, would be if the Turks left Cyprus.  There’s no sign of that happening.  So for now, he says, he’s careful not to waste the water he has. For The World, I’m Joanna Kakissis, Nicosia, Cyprus.

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