KRG allocates budget to build 12 dams in Kurdistan Region

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) approved a budget of 3.2 billion IQD (roughly 2.6 million USD) to complete the construction of 12 dams across the Kurdistan Region, an official confirmed.

“It is a significant decision that will affect the agriculture and tourism sectors, and it will help preserve underground water sources in Kurdistan for future generations,” said Akram Mohammed, the KRG’s Director for Dams and Water Resources.

According to Mohammed, the budget will revive the use of dams and reservoirs in the Kurdistan Region, and “enable us to complete 12 dams: three in Duhok, five within Erbil, and four dams in the Sulaimani governorate.”

“The dams will be completed in a few months as the design of the dams has already been approved.” 

Mohammed added that it is in their plans to initiate talks with relevant companies in the next few days to sign contracts and begin construction, which will reduce groundwater waste and preserve underground water sources for future use.   

The dams’ construction started in 2011, but the economic crisis in the Kurdistan Region in the following years hindered access to adequate funding in development and infrastructure work.

Analysts have long called on the successive governments of Iraq and the Kurdistan Region to implement policies that raise awareness of water shortages and incentivize the public to ration its water usage. The KRG has taken some initial steps in recent years, but meaningful change has been, at best, sluggish.

Experts have also suggested the regional government in Erbil, along with the federal government in Baghdad, work together and reach a consensus with neighboring countries, namely Turkey and Iran, on an equitable way of sharing water from the Tigris and Euphrates basins.

Editing by Nadia Riva