The dam is not able to operate at full capacity because of damage it sustained in the earthquake last November. Water levels in the reservoir are down more than 13 metres.
“We don’t want to put this dam at risk by trying to store more water,” Rahman Khani, director of Darbandikhan dam, told Rudaw.
The full extent of the problems with the dam is still not known and repairs will be specialized work, he explained.
The problem is compounding fears about water scarcity in the Garmiyan region where farmers have been advised to plant crops that need less water to grow.
The Sirwan River that enters the Kurdistan Region from Iran and fills Darbandikhan Lake is the primary water source for the Garmiyan region. Some 95 percent of farmlands in the region depend on irrigation infrastructure feeding off the river.
“If water decreases, the water for all the water projects will dry because the level of the Sirwan River will decrease and will not provide enough water for these projects,” Sherko Mohammad, director of water resources in Garmiyan, told Rudaw.
The Balejo irrigation project is the largest in Garmiyan and dates back to the time of Abdul Karim Qasim, prime minister of Iraq from 1958 to 1963. It waters over 35,000 hectares of farmland, but levels have dropped since the dam is unable to operate at full capacity.
Concerns about water scarcity have hit the headlines in Kurdistan and Iraq after Iran restricted the flow of the Little Zab River and levels in the lake at Mosul dam dropped dramatically.
