SULAIMANI (ESTA) — An Iraqi delegation is expected to pay a visit to Turkey this month to discuss the issue of water between the two countries, according to a senior official.
Iraqi minister of water resources Mahdi al-Hamdani said a technical delegation intended to visit Ankara on June 21 to raise the issue of water crisis in Iraq with the Turkish side.
“The technical meeting in Ankara will discuss water releases from the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, in addition to activating cooperation protocols signed between the two countries in the field of water,” the minister said in an interview with al-Sabah Newspaper published on Saturday.
Turkey is holding back water on the Tigris River to fill a reservoir behind its Ilisu dam, a step that has alarmed Iraq and caused shortages particularly in the southern province of Basra.
Turkey has also limited the flow of the Euphrates River into Syria for over three months, according to North Press Agency (NPA), which covers news in northeastern Syria.
Spokesman of the Iraqi water resources ministry Ali Radi said in May that levels of water in the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers had dropped by 50% compared to last year.
Iraq has been in talks with the neighboring countries to secure its share of water, according to the ministry’s spokesman.
“There have been meetings with the Syrian side and contacts with Turkey and Iran so as to lay down the outlines and agree to share the damage in such circumstances,” he said.
