ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) officials have indirectly conveyed a message to Baghdad that the central Iraqi government should not base their long-term water and irrigation strategies on Kurdistan rivers and bodies of waters.
Especially when compared with the rest of Iraq, the Kurdistan region is the leading region when it comes to water resources both for drinking and irrigation. Apart from the rivers and lakes that pour into the Kurdistan region from East (Iranian) Kurdistan, the area is abundant with lakes and big streams.
The Kurdistan region has four main rivers that include the Greater Zab, the Lesser Zab, the Sirwan and the Alwan. There are also three dams: Dukan, Darbandikhan and Dohuk.
Many Iraqi cities rely completely on the Kurdistan region for their water supplies.
In Diyala province, from cities like Jalawla to Khalis and all the way up to Baghdad itself, their water sources—both for drinking and irrigation—are supplied from the Kurdistan region. Samara and Tikrit further south also rely heavily on Kurdistan for their water supply.
“It’s very important that we deal with this issue in terms of dams and channels. If the Kurdistan Regional Government takes the right approach, it can use the water to pressure the Iraqi government in case Baghdad continues to punish the Kurdistan region economically, since 70 percent of the Tigris water comes from the Kurdistan region,” said Khalil Ismail, a political scientist who studies the impact of geography on political deals, in comments to Rudaw.
When the Islamic State gunmen took control of the Euphrates, Baghdad tried to find a solution by appealing to Turkey to increase the output of water coming from its territory. ISIS now controls the Euphrates dam in Raqqa, Syria and the Iraqi downstream Euphrates dams at Ramadi, Fallujah and Nazem. Now, central cities like Karbala, Najaf, Babel and Qadisiyah are without water, and most agricultural lands are being destroyed by drought.
“Turkey is not dealing in good spirit with Iraq and violates international treaties concerning water supplies in Iraq. Since Turkey uses water as a weapon against us, we should use our commerce against them,” Muhammad Saadon Sahiod, an Iraqi lawmaker with the parliamentary Irrigation and Farming Committee, told Rudaw.
Currently, the Kurdistan region has 12 large and small dams and has another 30 dams under construction. Some observers say that the Kurds’ water infrastructure will in the coming years empower the KRG in its predicted confrontation with the Iraqi government over power and revenue sharing.
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