INA meets Minister of Water Resources concerning water crisis

INA-  BAGHDAD

Minister of Water Resources Aoun Diab explained, on Thursday, the importance of the Iraq Forum, which opened under the slogan "Water and the environment in Iraq, it is time to act and avoid disaster," and while revealing new measures to face water scarcity, he stressed Iraq's need for an international position to obtain our water quotas from Turkey and Iran.

During an interview with the Iraqi News Agency (INA), Diab said that "the Iraq Forum, which was opened under the slogan "Water and Environment in Iraq, it is time to work and avoid disaster", is important to highlight the problem of climate change and its impact on very clear sectors, most notably the water sector, which is primarily, as it reflects on food security.”

He added: "We need an international position to support Iraq towards achieving its fair and equitable shares of neighboring countries participating with us in the common rivers in the Tigris and Euphrates and their tributaries, and we seek to communicate messages to the international community, in addition to the inside to respect the blessing of water and change our fact from the fact of water abundance to a fact of water scarcity.”

He said: "I had a meeting with the organization ACSAD, which is specialized in combating desertification in arid areas, and it has experiences in this field, this topic was presented to them and they have the possibility to participate in it, and currently international organizations such as the UNDP and some European organizations concerned with such works participate with us.”

He noted that "there are some understandings with neighboring countries, and the Turkish delegation is tasked with activating the memorandum of understanding that was signed in 2021, and this memorandum contains a contribution from the Turkish side to the development of irrigation projects in Iraq, specifically the Al-Emarah irrigation project, while with the Iranian side, other important issues such as Middle Tigris Project.

The minister revealed, "a major campaign that will be launched in the coming days, under his leadership, the working group and the general managers to confront the difficult reality, with very high backing from the Joint Operations Command under the guidance of the Prime Minister, in all situations, with the need for backing by local governments and security agencies to prevent abuses."

He continued: "We will cancel the irregular lakes and ask farmers and fish breeders to switch from rearing in the normal, primitive way to the rearing method in closed ponds, and this solves the problem because it does not need large quantities of water, and also the state will support this aspect."