PM Barzani allocates more than $240 million for water projects across Kurdistan Region

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani has allocated over 356 billion Iraqi dinars (over $240 million) for water projects across the Kurdistan Region.

“Among the projects that the budget is set to fund is the reformation of fresh water lines in different areas, alongside development of reservoirs across the Region,” read the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) statement.

In addition to maintaining water storage tanks, the municipality authorities can benefit from the budget by designing and installing cloud-based monitoring Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems that measure chemicals and toxins in the water.

The budget will also cover the necessary tools to “fix” water management and treatment plants.

The budget comes ahead of a hot summer. Last summer, residents of the Kurdistan Region had to deal with water shortages.

The KRG hopes to deal with drought by building dams and drilling new water wells.

In mid-April, municipality authorities in Erbil announced they would drill 138 wells to cope with possible water shortages in the province in the coming summer.

The KRG recently announced it would spend $14 million to “improve” Erbil’s water distribution networks.

Iraqi provinces, particularly in the south, are severely affected by reduced water flows from the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, on which Turkey and Iran have built multiple dams.