SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Australia and the Kurdistan Region have a proposal of joint plans to combat the environmental issue and the climate crisis in the region, according to a high-level meeting on Wednesday.
The deputy of the Kurdistan Region Prime Minister received the Australian Ambassador to Iraq, Paula Ganly, the pair discussed several joint plans to combat climate crises in a meeting at the Region’s council of ministers palace.
A joint statement concluded the meeting said both sides stressed the necessity of joint works and suitable plans to protect water security, and combat the environmental crises.
It also touched upon the drought crisis that hit the Kurdistan Region for two years, according to the statement.
The Australian government will send dozens of experts to support the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) to establish and execute suitable strategies, relating to environmental felids such as water security and combating drought, the statement said.
And several Australian private corporations will visit the Kurdistan Region in the nearby future, it said without saying for what purposes.
Since the rainfall season of 2021, the Kurdistan Region has been battered by drought during which both surface and underwater resource has decreased dramatically due to low rainfalls.
In the meantime, building dams on the water sources in Iran and Turkey that flow into the Kurdistan Region land has affected the surface waters which KRG heavily relies on them to supply the citizens with clean water.
Iraq’s main sources of water are the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers, providing 98% of the country’s surface water. Both rivers originate in Turkey, while the Euphrates passes through Syria, and some tributaries flow through Iran.
Turkey and Iran are holding back water to fill reservoirs behind dams that both countries have built in the past years.
