After a bilateral agreement, the Minister of Resources confirms the improvement of water flows coming from Turkey

Baghdad-INA  
the Minister of Water Resources, Aoun Diab, confirmed today, Sunday, the improvement of water flows from Turkey at a rate of 500 m3 per second, and while he was assured of the existence of huge water reserves and that there was no need to fear that it would run out, he announced the suspension of work on the Makhoul Dam, explaining the reasons.
"The water file in Iraq has become critical, and we are facing difficulties in securing it, but with good management, it is possible to overcome the crisis with minimal damage," Diab said, during his speech to the Neutral program on Al-Iraqiya News, and was followed by the Iraqi News Agency (INA).
He added, "The crisis affects Iraq from north to south, and is not limited to the cities of the center and south, as the villages of Rabia suffer from scarcity and wells dried up due to lack of rain, and their people were forced to dig about 800 meters deep to secure water."
 
Regarding the discussions with the source countries, the Minister of Resources explained, "The talks are continuing and the water file is managed by the Prime Minister as a sovereign and pressing file and personally. As a Minister of Resources I met with the Turkish ambassador for an hour and a half, and the meeting was clear and transparent, and we said frankly that we have a vision of what you have of storage and that Turkey can release water for Iraq securely without affecting its projects.
He explained, "Turkey can launch from the Ataturk dams on the Euphrates River and Alisu on the Tigris River in quantities that were discussed during the visit of an Iraqi technical delegation to Turkey last June. A plan was supposed to be implemented since the beginning of last July to release at least 370 m3 per second from AIisu Dam towards Mosul Dam and 350 m3 from Ataturk Dam to the Turkish-Syrian border all the way to Iraq, where the Euphrates River is.
 
Diab stressed that "Iraq spoke frankly with Turkey about the direct cause of the lack of releases, despite the availability of sufficient quantities of water within the strategic storage, and Ankara remained slow, then Prime Minister Muhammad Shia' al-Sudani sent a written message to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and a special envoy to discuss the issue clearly with the aim of finding solutions."