Water resources: Neighboring countries confiscate 75% of our rights in the Tigris and Euphrates

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[size=52]Water resources: Neighboring countries confiscate 75% of our rights in the Tigris and Euphrates[/size]

[size=45]Baghdad / Firas Adnan[/size]
[size=45]The Ministry of Water Resources reported that neighboring countries deny Iraq 75% of its water rights, noting that the current government granted negotiation on this file a sovereign character because it affects the country's security. The ministry's spokesman, Khaled Shamal, said, "The last high storage that was achieved for Iraq took place in 2019, because it was a rainy year and abundant water, with it reaching 60 billion cubic meters."[/size]
[size=45]Shamal added, "The years that followed witnessed a clear scarcity of water and it was not wet, and thus reliance was placed on storage due to the lack of water revenues."[/size]
[size=45]He pointed out, "The storage is 7.5 billion cubic meters, and this figure was maintained by Iraq four months ago."[/size]
[size=45]Shamal pointed out that "the ministry implements a policy of rational water distribution, and the rains that fell during the past two months were invested in the irrigation of crops, but they did not contribute to addressing the large storage void that we suffer from."[/size]
[size=45]He noted that "the storage is linked to the annual water cycle," noting that "its replenishment is linked to two aspects, the first related to water received from neighboring countries, and the second is the amounts of rain and snow levels."[/size]
[size=45]And Shamal continues, “The water revenues of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers have been affected by the water policies of neighboring countries represented by the establishment of large projects that have reserved quantities of discharges destined for Iraq.”[/size]
[size=45]And he talked about "an agreement with the Iranian side to install devices to measure water discharges on the rivers shared between the two countries."[/size]
[size=45]Shamal stated that 70% of water revenues come from abroad, distributed as 50% from Turkey, 15% from Iran, and 5% from Syria, so the biggest problem lies with the Turkish side.[/size]
[size=45]He pointed out, "Turkey has implemented projects estimated at 22 dams without taking Iraq's historical rights into consideration or consulting with it."[/size]
[size=45]And Shamal added, "Iraq receives less than 25% of its natural rights across the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, which is a dangerous indicator."[/size]
[size=45]And he continues, “Negotiations with the Turkish side have been uneven, they have always done and made strides, and then retreated.” Shamal explained, "The continuation of the negotiations should be accompanied by the response of the other party, and we understand it as providing more water releases." And Shamal went on to say that a delegation headed by the Minister of Defense recently went to Turkey and asked it to increase the releases for a month at certain rates, which are 500 cubic meters for the Euphrates and 400 cubic meters for the Tigris, but we did not see a response and the rates are still low.[/size]
[size=45]He stressed, "The successive governments in Iraq did not agree to conclude an agreement with the Turkish and Iranian sides, including obligating them to preserve Iraq's water rights." Shamal stressed, "All negotiations with the Turkish side did not lead to a tangible result that could be adopted in preserving our rights." And he stated, "Water negotiations were previously linked between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as the one responsible for negotiating with others, and the Ministry of Water Resources as the technical sectoral authority."[/size]
[size=45]And Shamal said, "The situation has changed now, and with the push of Prime Minister Muhammad Shia'a al-Sudani and Minister of Water Resources, Aoun Diab, to convert the water file into a sovereign file."[/size]
[size=45]And he continues, “The discharges that we receive from Turkey on the Tigris River at the Mosul Dam amount to 181 cubic meters per second, while we release 300 cubic meters per second from the dam.”[/size]
[size=45]And Shamal reported, “The Haditha Dam in the Euphrates River receives 111 cubic meters per second, but we release 380 cubic meters per second.”[/size]
[size=45]He stressed that "the difference between the two numbers is fed from the water storage," stressing that "these releases do not include liquefied water, but are generally described as raw water."[/size]
[size=45]Shamal continues, “The priorities for raw water management are for drinking, residential uses, major industrial projects, and then the agricultural sector.”[/size]
[size=45]And he stated, "The other problem we face is that the agricultural sector drains 75% of the raw water revenues."[/size]
[size=45]Shamal called for “regulating and rationalizing the agricultural sector, because we suffer from a problem in agricultural policy and we still depend on primitive means.”[/size]
[size=45]For his part, Adel Al-Mukhtar, a specialist in water affairs, said, “The next summer season will be very dangerous, and at a time when we have seen a scarcity of rain, the government is working to expand the agricultural plan, which is surprising.”[/size]
[size=45]He stressed, "Agriculture should be with modern irrigation systems, and we should move away from primitive means, so that we can save on water, and confront and overcome the current crisis."[/size]
[size=45]Al-Mukhtar continues, “The former and current ministers of water resources confirmed in statements that Iraq is close to a fourth dry season, and this means that we are on the verge of a year of scarce rain.”[/size]
[size=45]And he continues, “Iraq drains no less than 30 billion cubic meters of water, and the current storage does not exceed 10 billion cubic meters.”[/size]
[size=45]Al-Mukhtar concluded, "The importance of reconsidering the agricultural plan by establishing an emergency room that includes experts who plan for the future, and if we do not behave well, we will be facing a real problem."[/size]
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