Turkey has agreed to release more water from the Euphrates river to drought-ravaged Iraq, an Iraqi official said on Saturday as a Dubai firm won a contract to build a power station to provide electricity for 80,000 homes.
Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said Turkey had agreed to increase outflow from the Euphrates river to between 450 and 500 cubic meters per second until Oct. 20, after which the government would have to seek another deal.
There is an urgent need for water in Iraq during this period because of the crisis of agriculture
The Euphrates flows from Turkey through Syria and to Iraq.
"There is an urgent need for water in Iraq during this period because of the crisis of agriculture," Dabbagh said.
Iraq, a country that is largely desert apart from the inhabitable areas near its great rivers, is suffering one of its worst droughts in living memory.
Poor rains have damaged crop yields in Iraq, where the farm sector is hobbled by the effects of war and sanctions. Iraq is already one of the world's largest wheat importers because domestic yields consistently fall short of demand.
Baghdad accuses Ankara of choking the Euphrates with hydroelectric dams that have restricted the flow.
The Iraqi government has more recently accused Turkey of reneging on a June deal to guarantee its downstream neighbor a minimum of 400 cubic meters of water per second from the Tigris and Euphrates, saying it too often falls short of that level.
But Turkey has had no shortage of water in the past two weeks. Flash floods last week killed 31 people in northwest Turkey, sweeping through Istanbul, swamping houses and turning highways into fast-flowing rivers.
Dubai firm to build Iraq plant
The government stipulated that each home would receive two kilowatts, which means the power plant that we will build will provide electricity for around 80,000 homes
Meanwhile in related news, Dubai's URUK Engineering has won an $85 million contract to build a power station north of Baghdad to provide electricity for 80,000 homes.
The 160 megawatt plant in Taji, just outside the capital, is set to be completed in 15 months, Dabbagh said in a statement.
"The cabinet decided to grant the power plant project in Taji to a UAE-based company at a cost of $ 84.6 million," Dabbagh said.
"The government stipulated that each home would receive two kilowatts, which means the power plant that we will build will provide electricity for around 80,000 homes," Khaled Jamil, a proposal manager at URUK, told AFP by telephone.
"The government will decide where the electricity generated will be distributed."
Dabbagh said the government had also launched two other tenders for power plants to be built in Karbala and Hilla in southern Iraq.
Electricity remains a source of resentment for many Iraqis, who still suffer without 24-hour power throughout the country, more than six years after the overthrow of dictator Saddam Hussein by a U.S.-led invasion.
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