MOWR announces responding to water scarcity by three measures

Baghdad-INA

Ministry of Water Resources threatened Thursday to use pressure cards to strengthen Iraq's water position, while it announced a decrease in water reserves.

 The Director-General of the National Center for Water Resources Management, Hatem Hamid, said in a statement to the Iraqi News Agency (INA): "Iraq has many pressure cards, such as the commercial , the economic , the oil cards and others that the Iraqi government can benefit from for the purpose of strengthening Iraq's water position with neighbourhood countries ."

 Hamid added that "the negotiating team headed by the Minister of Water Resources takes upon himself all matters and communicates with all ministries for the purpose of preparing strong cards that support Iraq's position regarding its water shares with neighboring countries."

 He added, "As for the negotiations, it was hoped that a delegation would leave a month ago to Turkey for the purpose of discussing water quotas, but this visit was postponed by the Turkish side due to their measures for Corona, because they reduced the official working hours to 50%.

 Hamid pointed out that "the challenge of scarcity of water resources we are trying to manage successfully so far through managing water storage and distributing it over a long period for the purpose of investing and securing the needs, even at a minimum level, for all uses, whether agricultural, environmental, drinking water, and others.”

 He stated that "the great challenge faced by the Ministry of Water Resources at the level of the last year, was able, through its teams in all governorates, to curb these abuses for the purpose of securing water for all sectors and in all regions," explaining that "the current water storage has decreased as a result of revenue shortfalls."  water at a certain percentage, according to the plan prepared by the Ministry.