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Iraqi Kurdistan has plenty of water, soon
there will be none to drink
20.1.2012
By Farman Abdulrahman - Iraqi Kurdistan
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file photo
January
20, 2012
SULAIMANIYAH,
Kurdistan region 'Iraq', — The semi autonomous
state of Iraqi Kurdistan has plenty of water. For
the time being at least. But experts warn that a
water crisis is coming and that, despite plans to
build dozens of dams, local authorities are doing
nothing about it.
Her face is covered in sweat and she turns to check
that her daughter is alright. Halima Mustafa, 43, is
carrying a large bucket of water on her head and she
has another large bucket in her hand. Her
10-year-old daughter Coral is beside her, also
carrying two buckets of water. Everything drips as
the pair makes their way slowly home.
Halima lives in Shoresh, a town southwest of the
city of Sulaimaniyah, in the semi-autonomous state
of Iraqi Kurdistan. Every day Mustafa must walk
around four kilometres to bring water to her family
of six.
“This is a journey that we have to make every three
days,” the fatigued mother said, her voice
trembling, as she returned. “The government ration
the water supply and we only get water every ten
days.”
Mustafa’s family live in extreme poverty and they
can’t afford to dig their own well. “The cost of
digging a well is around IQD2 million [around
US$1,600],” Mustafa told Niqash. “We need water and
can’t survive without it so I must go and get it,
despite the pain it causes in my head and my back.
Some evenings, the pain is so bad I can’t even
sleep,” she complained.
Official statistics suggest that almost 14 percent
of the people in Iraqi Kurdistan don’t have easy
access to drinking water. According to figures from
the region’s Ministry of Planning,www.ekurd.net
around 3,850,000 people there do have easy access to
drinking water. But the total population of Iraqi
Kurdistan is around 4,500,000. Which suggests that
there are approximately 650,000 people who must do
similar to what Mustafa does.
Most of the people who don’t have easy access to
water or water on tap are living in villages. They
collect water from nearby tanks or wells; the local
authorities fill the tanks every few days. But as
Mustafa says, “the government keeps making promises
to increase the amount of water easily available but
it has never kept these promises.”
And it’s not like Iraqi Kurdistan doesn’t have
enough water. Most of the region’s water comes from
collected rainfall, hundreds of rivers, some of
which are fed by melting snow from surrounding
mountains, groundwater sources and three large dams.
However analysts say that mismanagement and the lack
of a scientific plan for water management is causing
suffering in the region; the effects of climate
change and population growth may also cause a
problem with water resources.
“The methods used for the administration of water
supplies in the Kurdistan region are weak,” Dr Jamil
Jalal, who works in the department of geography at
the University of Sulaimaniyah, says. “There are not
enough dams to collect rain and as a result, huge
quantities of water are wasted.”
In terms of the amount of water naturally available
to Iraqi Kurdistan, sources at the Ministry of
Agriculture and Water Resources say that over three
quarters of it is not collected. Additionally future
projections indicate that the amount of water coming
into the region will eventually decrease.
Mainly this is because around half of the sources of
the rivers in the region are actually located
outside the region. Iran and Turkey have both built
dams and set up irrigation projects that decrease
the amount of water reaching Iraqi Kurdistan.
Unofficial sources say that these kinds of projects
in neighbouring states have already caused at
least30 seasonal streams to dry up. And both Iran
and Turkey have plans to build more dams.
Seasonal streams – that is waterways that only flow
for part of the year – provide the bulk of surface
water sources in Iraqi Kurdistan. It is thought that
these kinds of streams provide the region with just
over half of all of its water.
Local engineer Mohammed Idriss, who specializes in
hydrology, suggests that if dams were to built on
these rivers the water that they collected could be
extremely valuable later, in the dry season.
“Most of the seasonal water in the region passes
through the mountains,” Idriss explained. “From an
engineering point of view, this would allow the
construction of dams. Unfortunately, up until now
not one dam has been built.”
Despite plenty of warnings – the United Nations has
repeatedly written about world water scarcity due to
population increase, wastage and climate change –
Idriss believes that the authorities in Iraqi
Kurdistan have not taken adequate measures to
protect the region’s populace from an inevitable
water shortage.
“Nearly every country in the world is preparing
itself for this crisis,” Idriss said. “What is the
government of Iraqi Kurdistan doing about it?”
The government of Iraqi Kurdistan does have a plan,
it insists. Akram Ahmed, Director of Reservoirs and
Dams at the local Ministry of Agriculture, points
out that the region has around 180 suitable areas in
which dams could be built and that the authorities
are actually looking at what could be done to avert
any future water crisis.
“But the government is not the only party
responsible for this,” Ahmed said. “People need to
get engaged on this issue and start saving water.”
Today, there are three dams in Kurdistan and these
dams are managed by the Kurdistan region’s
authority: Dukan on the Little Zab river, the
Darbandikhan on the Sirwan river and Dohuk on the
Dohuk river. These dams were built by successive
Iraqi governments, starting from 1958.
In 2009, the government of Iraqi Kurdistan approved
a strategic plan to develop the local agricultural
sector. According to this plan, eight large dams and
19 small and medium sized dams were to be built
around the region over the next five years.
However according to information obtained by NIQASH,
only four small dams have actually been completed
out of the 27 planned. These are the Hamamok dam in
Koya, the Bawa Shaswar dam in Kifri and the Hassan
Kanosh and Gali dams the areas of the same name.
Ahmed admits that the dam building has not taken
place according to the original timetable. But, as
he says, “we are still striving to create a
practical and scientific management plan for water
resources in the region. I remain optimistic about
our capacity to contain any crisis.”
Unfortunately the regional government has something
of a history of failure when it comes to dam
building. The Bakhma dam, on the Greater Zab, a
tributary of the Tigris River, is a good example of
this. The idea dates back to the early 1930s but up
to 1991, only one third was completed. In 2003, the
federal government allocated US$5 billion for the
completion of the dam but it has never happened and
nobody seems to know exactly why.
One government statement suggested the dam building
might cause earthquakes. But engineers dispute this
and government critics suggest that actually the
most likely reason is the fact that the dam would
submerge the hometown of the president of Iraqi
Kurdistan, Masoud al-Barzani.
So until something more happens that would realise
the plans to build more dams and improve the water
supply, most of the people that live without water
on tap depend on wells.
And over the past three years the number of licensed
wells in Iraqi Kurdistan has reached 19,448. But
this is far from a safe source of drinking water.
Most of the wells drilled recently collect water
from near the earth’s surface and this may well be
contaminated. The Ministry of Health in Iraqi
Kurdistan has statistics that say that out of every
1,000 infant deaths, 24 can be attributed to
polluted water.
Additionally the Ministry of Planning in Iraqi
Kurdistan says that the region’s population will
continue to increase; it will amount to 5,500,000 by
2015 and at that stage, current water sources in the
region will no longer suffice.
Given all of these issues, critics say that
government efforts in this area are totally
insufficient. “There is, and will be, a genuine
water crisis in our region,” Dr Jalal said. “If the
government continues to ignore this reality, then
the new generation will suffer because of lack of
water too.”
Some, like Mustafa’s daughter Coral, who helps her
mother carry water back to her family’s house every
week, already know this all too well.
Copyright © 2012, respective
author or news agency,
niqash.org
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