Water levels plummet in dams across the Kurdistan Region

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Dams across the Kurdistan Region are operating significantly below their capacity, directors of two of the largest dams told Rudaw on Tuesday, as a combination of this summer’s lack of rain and water blockages from neighbouring countries contribute to plummeting water levels.

Over 30 dams of varying sizes exist within the Region, according to the Kurdistan Region’s Ministry of Agriculture and Water Resources, with a total capacity of 10 billion cubic metres of water.

Dukan and Darbandikhan dams in Sulaimani province are both currently operating at under a third of their full capacity; a considerably lower rate linked to climate change and compounded by the construction of dams in neighbouring Iran which officials claim is reducing water access in the Region.

Water levels at Dukan dam, built in 1959, have decreased by six metres compared to last year, with just 2 billion cubic metres of water out of a seven billion cubic capacity. Darbandikhan dam, built in 1961, has seen a decrease in its water level by seven metres, with its 2.5 billion cubic capacity operating at just 800 million cubic metres.

Officials in Sulaimani province warned of low water supplies even before the hottest months of this summer and, in November, Darbandikhan hydropower plant generated its lowest level of electricity yet because of significant water shortages in its dam.

Director of Dukan dam, Kochar Jamal, told Rudaw on Tuesday that the current water level of the dam is 488.73 metres high. “If we compare it to this time last year, it has dropped by nearly six metres,” he said, adding that the dam has “a shortage of five billion cubic metres.”

In the Region’s Duhok province, Duhok dam, built in 1988, is facing even greater challenges. With 24 million cubic metres of water out of a capacity of 52 million, the dam is operating at under half of its full capacity, and its current levels have decreased by a staggering 15 metres compared to last year.

Officials have warned for years that dams built by Iran - as well as Turkey - have contributed to a growing water crisis in the southern and central provinces of Iraq and the northern Kurdistan Region. Iran has built around 600 dams in the country in the last 30 years; cutting or diverting river courses from its territory into Iraq.

According to a report by the Washington DC-based Fikra Institute, failed international cooperation and an increase in dam construction is leading to increased water shortages and threatening Iraq's security.

Earlier this year, the head of the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) Dam Directorate Akram Ahmed told Rudaw that the Region was in the midst of a water crisis due to a lack of rain, government funds, and dams being built in neighbouring Iran, and that the Iraqi government required a plan. 

This has yet to materialise, with Rahman Khani, director of Darbandikhan dam, restating that talks between Iraq and Iran are required to resolve the crisis.

“Even if it is a rainy year this year, Darbandikhan’s water income will drop significantly if Iran does not release water for us. There must be a political agreement between the Iraqi government and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) with Iran for some amount of water to be released in order to provide enough water to the people downstream from Darbandikhan Dam next year,” he told Rudaw.

Iraq’s Ministry of Water Resources last week made plans to take Iran to court over the country’s water policy towards Iraq, with Iraq's Minister of Water Resources Mehdi Rashid Al-Hamdani accusing Iran of digging tunnels and trying to alter the natural flow of water earlier this year.

The lawsuit would seek to guarantee the country’s right to shared water resources, although the move has been criticised for its uncollaborative approach to the existential issue, and it is unlikely to be taken any further by Iraq’s foreign ministry and current prime minister, Mustafa al-Kadhimi, who are keen to avoid flaring tensions with Iran.

Iraq is the fifth-most vulnerable nation in the world to the effects of climate change, including water and food insecurity. Low rainfall levels and high temperatures caused by climate change are depleting water supplies across the country. Much of Iraq’s agricultural lands depend on irrigation, and dams and reservoirs were at record-low levels this summer.

Reporting by Peshawa Bakhtyar

Translation and video editing by Sarkawt Mohammed