KRG allocates 2.5 billion dinars for drinking water amid shortages
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has dedicated 2.5 billion Iraqi dinars to providing drinking water, according to a Wednesday statement from the Department of Media and Information, amid drought and high temperatures across the Region.
The government has allocated 2.5 billion dinars ($1.7 million) “to resolve the issue in providing drinking water to houses as a first step in provinces and independent administrations,” read the statement.
The allocation for drinking water was discussed in a May meeting on reorganising water distribution, an official from the KRG’s water directorate told Rudaw at the time.
Water shortages regularly hit the Kurdistan Region and Iraq, but the situation is particularly bad this year amid drought and Turkish and Iranian dam projects limiting water crossing the borders.
KRG officials warned in April that the Region was already in the midst of a “water crisis” due to drought, a lack of government funds, and dams being built in neighbouring Iran.
The Iraqi government has recently held talks with both Iran and Syria to discuss Iraq receiving its “share of water.”
Shortages are also blamed on poor water resource management.
“There isn’t a good water management in the Kurdistan Region, that’s one problem. Another problem is there is not enough budget funds in the Kurdistan Region,” Mohammed Amin Faris, deputy director of the Iraqi parliament’s agriculture and water resources committee told Rudaw’s Ahmed Sangawi in April.