Kurdistan Region to renovate 11 dams

Mustafa Shilani 2021/12/22 23:31

Late last year, the KRG began building the Talwan and Kani Jali dams. (Photo: Archive)

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani agreed to a plan on Wednesday that aims to renovate 11 dams throughout the autonomous region of Iraq.

The Kurdistan Regional Government's (KRG) Department of Media and Information said in a statement that the dams, which were already included in a regionwide rehabilitation and renewal plan, are located in Erbil, Sulaimani, and Duhok provinces, as well as the Garmiyan administrative district.

Three of the dams are in Erbil (Jali, Dikla, and Hammamuk), three more in Sulaimani (Jami Samoura, Hassan Knoush, and Hashzini), one in Dohuk (Kashkan), and the remaining four in Garmiyan (Qadir Karam, Bawah Shaswar, Awa Spi, and Herwa).

Analysts have long called on successive administrations of Iraq and the Kurdistan Region to implement policies that raise awareness of water issues and incentivize the public to ration its usage.

Erbil Governor Omid Khoshnaw announced in August, during the height of a drought-filled summer, that the provincial government had approved a plan to construct a number of new dams.

There is also a broad domestic consensus that the regional government in Erbil and the federal government in Baghdad must work together to reach an agreement with neighboring countries, namely Turkey and Iran, on an equitable way of sharing water from the Tigris and Euphrates basins.