Baghdad – WAA – Mohammed Al-Talibi
The Ministry of Water Resources announced today, Thursday, the water projects to be implemented with Turkey, and while it indicated that they will contribute to investing in rainwater, it pointed to the implementation of dam designs.
The official spokesman for the ministry, Khaled Shamal, told the (INA): “The most important projects to be implemented with Turkey include two types of important strategic projects: water harvesting dam projects related to water sustainability and the use of rainwater, and the second type is related to the reclamation of large lands.”
He added, “The water harvesting projects include the implementation of the Al-Boutaqiya Dam in Nineveh, the Al-Abyad Dam in the holy Karbala, and the Al-Kharaz Dam in the Samawah desert,” noting that “these projects will contribute to enhancing the ministry’s capabilities to invest in rainwater, collect it, and rehabilitate the natural landscape of the areas in which they are located.”
He stated that “these dams will contribute to securing water for the surrounding area,” noting that “the Al-Kharaz Dam in the Samawah desert will prevent the large floods whose paths lie within this basin from reaching the nearby urban areas.”
He stated that “the water harvesting dams have complete designs and there is no problem with their implementation,” noting that “the dam projects linked to the reclamation projects include a package of important strategic projects, including the Alexandria-Mahawil reclamation project, which is between Baghdad Governorate and Babil Governorate, with an area exceeding 150 thousand dunums, as well as the Muthanna irrigation project, whose area is close to fifty thousand dunums, in addition to a third project in Kirkuk Governorate.”
He explained that “there are strategic projects within the second phase after the completion of the first phase, including the Amara irrigation project with an area of 400,000 dunums and the East Al-Gharraf project with an area of 475,000 dunums. These projects are important because they will work to achieve irrigation efficiency and increase agricultural yield per dunum and facilitate water consumption and will contribute to enhancing awareness and culture towards modern irrigation and mechanized irrigation.”
He explained that “the launch of these projects was not delayed and they are part of the agreement concluded last April between Iraq and Turkey during the visit of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Some time was spent to complete their technical designs, schedules and quantities and they are now on the contracting and implementation table,” explaining that “each project has a time and a period of time according to its size from one to three years, while as for water harvesting dam projects, their periods range from one to two years.”