ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - An advisor to Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia' al-Sudani said Wednesday that the country is experiencing a significant improvement in water levels this year, with the Tigris River’s flow tripling compared to last year amid increased rainfall and full water releases from Turkey.
Turhan al-Mufti, the Iraqi prime minister’s advisor for water affairs, told Rudaw that "the combination of these releases with this year's rain and snow has increased the water level of the Tigris River threefold compared to last year.”
Mufti said that Iraq has entered a critical "water storage period," adding “this process will continue until June.”
He stressed that the coming months are vital for securing sufficient reserves ahead of the dry summer season.
“We have at least three more months ahead of us to store water, which is an important step to comfortably navigate the summer season,” he added.
Mufti described rainfall across various parts of Iraq and southern Turkey as “very good,” noting that precipitation in the upper basin areas plays a decisive role in Iraq’s water supply
He went on to explain that the northern part of the Tigris and Euphrates basin located in southern Turkey is strategic for Iraq “because there are no dams in those areas, and any rain or snow that falls there directly becomes Iraq's share and flows into its territory through the rivers.”
For the past three weeks, Mufti said, water levels in the Tigris River and at Mosul Dam - Iraq's largest - have been in a “very good” state. The Euphrates River is currently at a “good” level, but he expects further improvement in the coming spring months.
Iraq relies heavily on the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, both of which originate in Turkey. However, large-scale Turkish dam projects, including the Southeastern Anatolia Project (GAP), have significantly reduced downstream water flow, exacerbating drought, desertification, and environmental degradation.
In November last year, Iraq and Turkey signed the implementation mechanism of the Framework Water Cooperation Agreement, a deal officials say aims to provide sustainable solutions to Iraq’s worsening water crisis.
It followed an agreement struck between the two neighbouring countries in 2023. According to Iraq’s Water Resources Minister Aoun Diab, who spoke to Rudaw in February last year, the Turkish government is “required to release 500 cubic meters of water per second as a minimum and of these 260 cubic meters should reach Iraq.”
The minister stated that the flow of water from Turkey to Iraq has dramatically decreased in recent years, especially in 2022 when waterflow to Iraq was at only 180 cubic meters of water.
Addressing water releases from Turkey, Mufti emphasized that upstream flows are currently being maintained at full capacity.
The improved water levels in Iraq comes after several years of severe water shortages. According to the United Nations, Iraq ranks fifth among the countries most affected by climate change.
Data from the Iraqi Ministry of Water Resources show that over the past three years, dam storage levels fell to historic lows, leading to the drying up of large areas of the southern marshes and triggering mass migration from rural communities.
The World Resources Institute has also classified Iraq among 25 countries facing “extreme water stress,” meaning it consumes more than 80 percent of its available water resources, leaving it highly vulnerable to prolonged drought.
Experts say Iraq’s water crisis stems from a combination of climate change, declining rainfall, poor resource management, and upstream dam construction in Turkey and Iran. The absence of comprehensive water-sharing agreements with neighboring countries has further exposed Iraq to unilateral upstream decisions that could impact its water security.
Since late last year, however, Iraq and the Kurdistan Region have seen torrential rainfall, leading to flash floods and overflowing rivers and dams, particularly in Sulaimani and Kirkuk provinces in the north. Officials say the current storage phase, if sustained, could provide much-needed relief after years of acute shortages.
Comments
Rudaw moderates all comments submitted on our website. We welcome comments which are relevant to the article and encourage further discussion about the issues that matter to you. We also welcome constructive criticism about Rudaw.
To be approved for publication, however, your comments must meet our community guidelines.
We will not tolerate the following: profanity, threats, personal attacks, vulgarity, abuse (such as sexism, racism, homophobia or xenophobia), or commercial or personal promotion.
Comments that do not meet our guidelines will be rejected. Comments are not edited – they are either approved or rejected.
Post a comment