A senior government delegation visits Turkey this week

INA-  Baghdad

Minister of Water Resources, Aoun Dhiab, announced Sunday the upcoming visit of a government delegation to Turkey regarding water quotas, while indicating that he is seeking to develop a work program with Ankara regarding the operation of Turkish dams.

 Dhiab told the Iraqi News Agency (INA), that "the earthquakes that occurred in Turkey greatly affected the discussions on water shares, which were planned to be held," noting: "We met the Turkish ambassador at the ministry's headquarters, and they discussed very vital points."

 He added, "The ambassador expressed his willingness to reach an understanding on several points and transfer them to Turkish officials," noting, "There is an expected visit at a very high level from the government to Turkey this week, and I will be participating in it."

 He expressed his hope that "this visit will produce positive results regarding helping Iraq by strengthening its water reserves to face the coming summer, which will be relatively harsh," pointing out: "We will ask the Turkish neighbor to abide by the agreements that were previously in the release of the quantities in the Euphrates River that were agreed upon, namely  500 cubic meters per second on the Turkish-Syrian border, including 290 cubic meters on the Syrian-Iraqi border.

 He continued, "This is calculated on percentages distributed at a rate of 58 percent to Iraq and 42 percent to Syria, but unfortunately, Turkey did not abide by this agreement for months, which affected the issue of storage in the Haditha Dam," expecting that "during the upcoming visit when this issue will be clearly raised,, we will try to reach an understanding with the Turkish officials in this aspect regarding the Euphrates."

 He stated, "With regard to the Tigris, we have a clear desire or request to increase the discharges from the Ilisu Dam towards Iraq to meet the water needs in the next summer season, because it will be a great challenge during the coming summer."