ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A government official in the Kurdish border town of Qaladze announced on Wednesday that Iran has completely stopped the small amount of water flow it had released into the Kurdistan Region earlier this month. Bakir Baiz, Qaladze mayor told Rudaw that the small amount of water flow coming from the Little Zab River or Zei Bchuk into the town of Qaladze has been largely reduced and "the situation has now gone back to how it was before. It is as if they have completely blocked the water." He explained they had called the mayor of Sardasht city on the Iranian side to inform them of the reduction of water flow again. He added that they had not received an answer from them yet. Iran recently constructed a dam on Zei Bchuk in the Kurdish city of Sardasht to produce hydroelectric power. In late June, Tehran initially stopped the water flow across the border into neighboring Kurdistan Region resulting in an 80-percent reduction of water flow across the border into the Khas water project in Qaladze. The river also feeds Dukan Lake. Following repeated calls by Erbil, Iranian authorities restored a small portion of water amounting to just seven percent of the river The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has threatened in the past to cut off water to central and southern Iraqi provinces if Iran continued to stem the flow of water into the Region. And today a high-level Iraqi government delegation of oil, education, health and agriculture officials arrived in Erbil, reportedly to discuss a range of issues among them energy and water resources. Local authorities in Qaladze have repeatedly said that reduction of water flow into Qaladze town damages more than 80,000 people of Qaladze town. It has also materially been detrimental to many projects including fish-raising projects, livestock, tourism, and many other projects. It also affects Sulaimani city, Kurdistan’s second biggest city, as it relies on the Dukan Lake for drinking water. The river also feeds Dukan Lake. Compared to last year, Dukan Lake’s water level has dropped by some 18 percent, partly due to the impact of the stemming of water flow from Zei Bchuk into the lake, according to figures from Hama Tahir Jalal, manager of Dukan Dam. The Kurdistan Region has several small rivers and the two major lakes of Dukan and Darbandikhan that contributes to the country’s electricity.
