ANKARA, Turkey: Turkey cannot give more water to Iraq and Syria, Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said Thursday as officials from the three neighbors met here to discuss the sharing of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. The Ankara talks follow Iraqi accusations last month that Turkey was holding back water despite a promise to increase the flow into its drought-stricken southern neighbor.

“We are aware of the need for water in our neighbors … but we do not have a lot of it in the reservoirs of our dams,” Yildiz said ahead of the meeting.

Turkey has increased the flow to 517 cubic meters per second (m3/sec) from the average 500 m3/sec, the minister said.

“To be honest, it is not possible for us to increase this further. We cannot allow our own water and energy management to run into problems.” However, his remarks were contradicted by both the Iraqi and Syrian ministers at the talks. They reported a marked decrease in the flow from the Euphrates, which runs through Syrian territory before reaching Iraq.

“We have only received 8 billion cubic meters of water from the Euphrates between August 2008 and August 2009. That means a decrease of 30 percent,” said Iraqi Water Minister Latif Rashid in his opening remarks.

He added that rainfall had also decreased by 40 percent, leading to drought, a fall in agricultural activity, and mass migration in the south of the country.

“The situation in Iraq has never been as dire as it has been in the past two years … Iraq needs more water from both Syria and Turkey,” he added.

Syrian Irrigation Minister Nader Bunni said the flow from the Euphrates from Turkey had fallen to an average of 400 m3/sec in the past 11 months – more than 100 m3/sec less than the figure given by Turkey.

Despite this, Syria has started to let 69 percent of the water to flow to Iraq: that was more than the 58 percent previously agreed between the two neighbors, he added.

But Turkey’s Environment Minister Veysel Eroglu argued that his country had strived to provide adequate water for its neighbors despite less rainfall triggered by climate change.

“During 2006 and 2008, rainfall has decreased by 24 percent in the Tigris river basin and by 46 percent in the Euphrates river basin.

“We have nearly completely emptied the reservoir of Turkey’s biggest dam at the expense of energy production so our neighbors do not suffer water shortages,” he said, calling for more efficient management of scarce resources.

The one-day meeting in Ankara focused on joint measurement stations along the rivers; exchanging hydrological and meteorological data; seasonal monitoring of water levels; and training programs on climate change and the development of water sources.

It was Iraq that called for an urgent meeting with Syria and Turkey after the flow of water from the Euphrates fell by more than half in less than a month.

Iraq said at the end of June that Turkey had increased the Euphrates flow from 360 m3/sec to 570 m3/sec to help overcome a shortage and promised to raise that to 715 m3/sec in July, August and September.

But last month, Iraq claimed the amount was cut back to around only 250 m3/sec – around a quarter of the minimum requirement for irrigation.

Iraq and Syria have often complained that Turkey monopolizes the waters of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers through a series of dams built on both rivers as part of a massive project to irrigate its southeastern corner.