ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The level of Erbil’s underground water has decreased around 500 meters over the past two decades, the Kurdistan Region’s ministry of municipalities and tourism warned on Friday.
“In the past 20 years, underground water levels have decreased 500 meters,” read a statement from the ministry.
According to data provided in the statement, in order to dig a well with sufficient water supply, in 2003, one would need to dig 200 meters deep into the ground in Erbil, while in 2022, a well has to go as deep as 700 meters.
“In 2022, around 300 wells have gone dry,” the statement read, adding that the general directorate of water will dig 138 wells in order to reduce water crisis.
The Kurdistan Region and Iraq are regularly affected by water shortages.
Erbil governor earlier this month warned citizens against wasting water while pledging to support them as they suffer from the decreased amount of water amid a hot summer.
The province has allocated 7.6 billion Iraqi dinars for drilling 138 water wells and an additional 4.7 billion dinars to address "technical problems" in the wells and link them to their local neighborhoods' generators, according to Erbil Governor Omed Khoshnaw.
Despite a rainy winter season where Erbil province experienced vast flooding, the excess water did not provide any benefits for the increase of groundwater, the governor regrettably said, with the Kurdistan Region and Iraq as a whole facing a difficult, dry summer ahead.
Iraq is the fifth-most vulnerable nation in the world to the effects of climate change, including water and food insecurity. The effects of climate change are surfacing at an alarming rate in the country, and a senior advisor at the Iraqi water resources ministry warned in April that the country's water reserves have halved since last year, due to a combination of drought, lack of rainfall, and declining water levels.
