Al-Saadi: water sharing with neighbours not fair for Iraq

Iraqi fisherman paddles through southern marshlands The minister of water resources in Iraq, Muhannad al-Saadi, told Arabstoday that his country doesn\'t get its fair shares from joint water resources between Iraq and its neighbouring countries, asserting Iraq needs support from relevant international organisations, particularly the United Nations.
Al-Saadi, revealed that Iraq is going to establish a supreme council for water resources, which will be headed by prime minister Nouri al-Maliki, and the council will be assigned management of all internal and external issues relating to Iraq\'s water resources. Al-Saadi added that his ministry has adopted a project for padding the rivers, in order to decrease water leakage through the soil.
\"This project can\'t be fruitful without cooperation from farm owners, who have to commit to their share of water and not to exceed it, especially as the country suffers shortages in water supplies,\" the minister said.
Al-Saadi revealed that his government has signed agreements with both Iran and Turkey, to guarantee a fair share of the water from the Tigris and Euphrates rivers for Iraq. He added that as these agreements are not respected by both countries, Iraq as a result needs the United Nations to interfere in order to impose a fair distribution of water sharing between the three countries.
The minister said he had discussed with the Iranian side in February 2012,the implementation of the terms of the agreement signed by the two sides, especially on the issue of dealing with pollution in the Shatt al-Arab region, by identifying sources of pollution and improving water quality, in addition to coordinating with experienced Iranian water companies on several irrigation projects, so as Iraq may benefit from learning how to reduce their waste of water.
Al- Saadi, also revealed that a deal with Turkey to build a joint water dam in the border area between the two countries is being proposed, as well as the possibility of Turkish institutes holding training programmes for Iraqi technicians and engineers who specialise in water related works.
The major part of Iraq\'s water resources is provided by the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, while 68% of the Tigris\' supplies and 97% of Euphrates comes from Turkey, Syria and Iran. However the expansion in water usage in those countries has caused harmful effects on Iraq, which is witnessing a critical shortage in water supplies since 2007.
Turkey alone, has built 14 dams along the path of the Euphrates river and its sub-rivers, in addition to 8 other dams on the Tigris river, while Syria has built five dams, 3 of which were built in the sixties, which is a one of the issues which is now causing a  reduction of two thirds of Iraq\'s water supplies.