Parliamentary warnings: Irrigation dams threaten water reserves in Iraq

POSTED ON[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] BY [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

[size=52]Parliamentary warnings: Irrigation dams threaten water reserves in Iraq[/size]

[size=45]A member of the Iraqi Parliament, Thaer Makhif, revealed the dangers of irrigation dams on water reserves.[/size]
[size=45]Thaer Makhif says, “Dams are built for three main purposes: water storage, electrical energy circulation, and irrigation purposes,” noting that “dams used to generate electrical energy do not affect water storage, unlike irrigation dams, which are a major source of concern.”[/size]
[size=45]He added, “The dangerous dam that affects the water storage is the irrigation dam that Turkey and Iran are building on the rivers flowing towards Iraq,” stressing that “Kurdistan has adopted the same policy of building irrigation dams, which threatens to cut off water from the central and southern regions of the country.”[/size]
[size=45]He explains that “the water storage in Iraq depends to a large extent on the Tigris River, and not the Euphrates River, because the Tigris is exposed to floods that increase the amount of available water,” pointing out that “water scarcity will be less this year, due to the abundance of rain that fell during this season.” “.[/size]
[size=45]The member of Parliament continues, “Rain harvesting in Iraq is still not advanced and well calculated,” pointing out “the need for many years to develop the optimal use of these resources to address the problem of water scarcity facing the country.”[/size]
[size=45]The Iraqi Ministry of Agriculture has reduced the levels of its agricultural plan for all crops by half, due to the decline in Iraq's water reserves in the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and their tributaries.[/size]
[size=45]For his part, the environmental affairs specialist, Manaf Al-Hamdani, explains that “the dangers of irrigation dams to the water storage in Iraq are many, and building dams on the rivers that feed Iraq could lead to a reduction in the amount of water that reaches the country, which affects the water reserve.”[/size]
[size=45]He added, “The dams on the rivers that feed Iraq, such as the Tigris and Euphrates, reduce the amount of water reaching the country, which negatively affects agriculture, drinking and industrial uses.”[/size]
[size=45]He explains that “reducing the flow of fresh water could lead to increased salinity of soil and water in Iraq, affecting agriculture and the quality of water available to the population.”[/size]
[size=45]The environmental expert added that “building dams can spark conflicts between riparian countries over water, especially between Iraq and neighboring countries such as Turkey, Syria and Iran, as they all depend on the same water sources,” noting that “reducing water flow affects ecosystems that depend on rivers, including wildlife and plants.”[/size]
[size=45]Al-Hamdani calls for “cooperation with neighboring countries to reach agreements that guarantee the fair and sustainable sharing of water, in addition to adopting effective water management policies and improving the infrastructure for managing water resources.”[/size]
[size=45]The total number of irrigation canals in Iraq is (2351) canals distributed across all governorates, and they are of different types (main, subsidiary, sectional and tail). In addition, there are (49) main canals branching off from the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and their tributaries, such as the Tharthar Canal in Samarra, the Warar Canal within the Habbaniyah Project, and other canals that draw water from several dams such as the Samarra Dam, the Diyala Dam on the Diyala River, the Kut Dam, the Amara Dam on the Tigris River, and the Ramadi, Fallujah and Hindiya Dams on the Euphrates River.[/size]
[size=45][You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]