Drinking water flows once again after being cut off from 60 percent of Erbil

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Drinking water is again available in Erbil neighborhoods after three days due to heavy rainfall in the Haji Omeran area, the province’s water directorate said Saturday. 

Sixty percent of Erbil’s drinking water was too murky to process after heavy rain in Haji Omeran over the past three days, the Directorate of Water and Sewage said in a statement. 

Engineers were able to reopen the pipes in sections and allow the water to flow again after the weather calmed, it said.

Erbil depends on groundwater for 65 percent of its drinking water, and gets the other 35 percent from springs and running rivers. 

The directorate on Wednesday had announced the suspension of the water sanitation project, leading to the interruption of drinking water from residential neighborhoods in the city center. 

Iraq in general, and the Kurdistan Region in particular, are under pressure to provide clean drinking water due to low rainfall and issues with neighboring countries. 

Previously, the Water Resources Committee in the Kurdistan Regional Parliament called on the federal government to compensate farmers in a bid to ease the damage caused by the lack of rain and dam projects of upstream countries like Iran and Turkey.

About 70 percent of Iraqi water resources flow from neighboring countries, and the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, whose sources are in Turkey, are of particular importance.