Erbil, Baghdad discuss construction of new dams

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani Iraqi Minister of Water Resources Mahdi Rashid al-Hamdani discussed the construction of new dams in Iraq and the region during a meeting on Sunday.

Prime Minister Barzani received the Iraqi minister in Erbil, according to a statement from the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).

According to the statement, they discussed launching "strategic projects, securing dam maintenance requirements, and constructing new dams" in Iraq and the Kurdistan Region.

They also highlighted ways to enhance coordination between the federal and KRG ministries of water resources.

The two sides emphasized the need to establish a mechanism to resolve the issue of delayed salaries of dam employees in the Kurdistan Region. Baghdad has not delivered KRG's share of the federal budget for the past several months.

Analysts have long called on 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 of the 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, must 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 Khrush Najari