ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A $200-million emergency water project in Erbil will be completed in two months and is set to begin supplying neighborhoods in December, according to the head of the Kurdistan Region’s water and sewerage department. Around “90 percent of the work has been completed, and the entire project will be finished in two more months with work proceeding very quickly,” Ari Ahmed told Rudaw on Sunday. The project consists of four lines. The first one was completed in July, while work on the remaining three is ongoing. “The project is scheduled to be completed in November, but water will not reach any neighborhood until December,” Ahmed said. The Emergency Water Supply Project - also called the Rapid Water Emergency Project - covers 40 neighborhoods in Erbil, many of which rely on wells, including areas outside the city’s 120-meter and 150-meter roads, according to Ahmed, adding that with the project’s completion, the wells will no longer be used. Launched by Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani in September 2024, the project is located on the Gwer-Erbil road and aims to tackle chronic shortages by recycling wastewater for irrigation and agriculture for the next three decades. Erbil has long suffered water scarcity, particularly in eastern neighborhoods. In late August, Rabar Hussein, head of Erbil’s water department, told Rudaw that three wells dried up in the northwestern 32 Park neighborhood, leaving residents dependent on private tankers. Many complained about having to pay for water deliveries. The project comes as Iraq faces its worst water crisis in decades. The country consumes more than 80 percent of its available supply and is ranked among the 25 most water-stressed nations in the world, according to the World Resources Institute. Iraq relies heavily on the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, but large Turkish dam projects, including the Southeastern Anatolia Project (GAP), have cut flows to less than 40 percent of historic levels. Reduced rainfall, rising temperatures, upstream dams, and years of mismanagement have deepened the crisis. In July, Turkey pledged to increase releases into the rivers by 420 cubic meters per second following a meeting between President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Iraqi Parliament Speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani. Iraqi officials later said Ankara did not fulfill the commitment, though Turkish officials told Rudaw in August that Iraq had expressed satisfaction with the flows. Iraq’s Supreme Water Council, chaired by Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani in late August, tasked the Foreign Ministry with pressing Turkey to boost releases and approved holding a ministerial-level technical meeting with Iran on water.
