Kirkuk resumes water project despite ‘sabotage’ of power supply

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) –The Kirkuk governorate on Sunday announced the resumption of work at one of the area’s major water projects after it stopped in the wake of acts of “sabotage” targeting power lines.

The Directorate of Water Resources announced the suspension of operations shortly after Iraq’s Ministry of Electricity claimed “terrorists” targeted and destroyed a power transmission line between the Erbil and Kirkuk provinces, one in a series of attacks in recent months.

The latest bombing took place in the Chaghmagha district in Kirkuk and destroyed above-ground transmission lines that supply electricity to the Kirkuk province from the Kurdistan Region. According to the ministry, its technical teams were deployed to the area to repair damages before it led to a power shortage.

“The water project restarted after the Directorate of Irrigation supplied the necessary water through the only feeding channel to the project,” the Kirkuk Governorate Department said in a statement.

The Kirkuk Governorate did not specify how the Directorate of Irrigation was able to provide the required electricity to pump the water, notably since they had earlier claimed electricity shortages were responsible for the distributions.

It added the work halted because of power cuts to pumps feeding the irrigation channel, once more referring to the transmission line being destroyed in acts of “sabotage.”

No one has claimed responsibility for the attacks targeting the power lines.

The Directorate in July stated the project was 88 percent complete and that water was to flow at a rate of 12 thousand cubic meters per hour.

The project includes 12 sediment basins, each with a capacity of 5,000 cubic meters, along with a number of buildings and technical facilities.

Editing by Nadia Riva