Iraq calls on Syria to cooperate in Facing water imports scarcity

INA – BAGHDAD 
 
Minister of Water Resources Mahdi Rashid Al-Hamdani stressed the importance of cooperation between Iraq and Syria, to face any emergency, and to reach agreements to ensure that Iraq obtains a fair and reasonable water share in light of the water imports scarcity and climate changes.
 
Al-Hamdani chaired the specialized technical meeting at the ministry's headquarters via closed-circuit television with his counterpart, Minister of Irrigation and Water Resources in the Syrian Arab Republic, Tammam Muhammad Raad, to discuss joint cooperation with the Syrian side regarding water resources in what concerns the Euphrates River, as it passes a long distance inside neighboring Syria, which requires preserving the water imports entering them and bringing them to the Iraqi borders, according to a statement by the ministry, received by the Iraqi News Agency (INA).
 
At the beginning of the meeting, the minister welcomed his Syrian counterpart, “inviting the technical delegation to attend the work of the dam safety conference to be held this month at the Mosul Dam,”
 
He stressed, according to the statement, "the importance of unifying positions, visions and ongoing coordination between the two countries to reach agreements that guarantee Iraq's access to a fair and reasonable water share in light of the scarcity of water imports and climatic changes as well as, the importance of cooperation and coordination as to set immediate and quick plans to confront any emergency in addition to unifying the bonds of joint cooperation between the two brotherly countries and exchange of visions, experiences, and holding training courses, according to the request of the Syrian side, during the meetings of the technical committees, whether remotely or in person in Baghdad,”
 
For his part, the Syrian minister thanked his counterpart al-Hamdani for his "cooperation to serve the two brotherly peoples," calling for "to benefit from the Iraqi expertise in the groundwater sector by holding intensive courses in this regard,"
 
The ministry indicated that "the meeting included a presentation by the National Center for Water Resources Management entitled "A multi-criteria application for regulating water resources in the Tigris and Euphrates rivers for the riparian countries in them,"