MOWR explain the objectives of the Fourth International Water Conference and the importance of holding it in Baghdad

Baghdad - INA

The Ministry of Water Resources clarified today, Thursday the objectives of holding the Fourth International Water Conference under the auspices of Prime Minister Muhammad Shiaa Al-Sudani and the importance of holding it in Baghdad for the period from April 27-29.

The Ministry’s official spokesman, Khaled Shamal, told the Iraqi News Agency (INA): “Iraq is holding the Fourth International Water Conference under the slogan “Towards a Better Water Future: Together We Can,” and under the patronage of Prime Minister Muhammad Shia’ al-Sudani, and under the supervision of the Minister of Water Resources, Aoun Dhiab. For the period from April 27-29, at the Gilgamesh Hall in the Babylon Hotel in the center of the capital.

Shamal added, “The conference is an international, scientific, professional forum and a national forum to mobilize efforts and devise administrative, scientific and technical procedures to support Iraq internationally, scientifically and technically in the field of preserving its historical, geographical, legal and even national and moral rights to obtain what it is entitled to from the water coming from neighboring countries.”

He pointed out that “Iraq receives water from neighboring countries (Turkey, Iran, Syria), and therefore there are no clear and binding agreements with these countries, which requires investing and harnessing all the efforts required to secure water revenues for Iraq,” noting that “among these The efforts are international conferences through which ambassadors, scientists, and water resource management specialists in all water neighboring countries participate, in addition to the participation of civil society organizations, scientific circles, and institutions concerned with local and international water management, and thus the outcome of these axes supports Iraq’s historical efforts to preserve its water rights.”

Regarding the role that the Ministry plays in organizing the conference, Shamal explained, “The Ministry’s role is essential in holding the conference on an annual basis, in addition to the organizational role and bearing the costs, expenses, and expenditures for holding the conference, in addition to its role in the preparatory, scientific, and media committees, the protocol committees, receiving delegations, and preparing all their related procedures.” With regard to the participating delegations, some of these delegations have representation at the level of water ministers, ministers of water-neighbouring countries, ambassadors as well, personalities, deputy ministers, general agents, civil society organizations, and scientific figures from inside and outside Iraq.

He continued, "The Ministry has formed, since the end of the previous conference, the conference secretariat, and has also formed a group of scientific committees, preparatory committees, the media committee, and the relations committee, and all of these committees have been semi-permanently in session since the previous third conference, which was held in Baghdad, as these committees took it upon themselves to coordinate to ensure the holding of this conference in the form, manner, and form that befits Mesopotamia.”.

He stressed, "The Minister of Water Resources is directly and almost daily following the work procedures of these committees, while the Prime Minister has transferred the water file to an important transition and turned it into a sovereign file, and is closely following the procedures of the conference that will be under his auspices."