Water’s Worth: Reconsidering Deutsche Bank’s 1907 Konya Plain Irrigation Project

The 1907 Konya Plain Irrigation Project redefined local ecologies and catalysed material and political changes in central Anatolia. Often overshadowed by the Anatolian Railway Company’s railway infrastructure, this study highlights Deutsche Bank’s pivotal role in environmental engineering. As the Ottoman Empire relied on foreign capital for infrastructural projects, the Konya Project emerged as a nexus of state centralisation and capitalist enterprise, reshaping Anatolia’s agricultural landscape. The project aimed to create a rationally planned, mechanised and export-oriented agricultural space, often sidelining local peasant needs in favour of state modernisation and foreign capital interests. This quasi-colonialist public–private partnership exemplifies how multinational banks influenced the transformation of natural and socio-political landscapes in rural Anatolia, marking the Konya Project as a key player in this era of state-managed environmental change.