Iraq seeks a water agreement with Syria and Turkey

Iraq yesterday announced that its share of the waters of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers are not enough and it wants to have talks with Turkey and Syria who also benefit from the water of the two rivers.

Iraq’s water resources minister at the Iraqi interim governing council Abdul Latif Rasheed said in a press interview that the Iraqi authorities intend to have talks between the two neighboring countries very soon in order to reach an agreement on the fair distribution of water shares between the three countries. He expressed his conviction that the amount of water which enter the Iraqi territories is not enough.

Rasheed also asked the governing council for one billion to implement projects relating to water resources in the country for thee year 2004 including efforts to rejuvenate al-Ahwar (marches) which were dried by the former regime in southern Iraq during the 1990s during its campaign against the supporters of the southern Shiite uprising.