High level government meeting adopts urgent measures for water file
The Supreme National Water Committee adopted a series of vital directives during its meeting held on Monday evening to address challenges related to the country's water reality. A statement issued by the Prime Minister's office indicated that Prime Minister Ali Faleh Al-Zaidi chaired today, Monday, the first regular session of the committee for the year 2026, attended by a group of ministers, advisors, and executive leaders concerned with this sensitive sector. The meeting included, according to the statement, a comprehensive review of the water storage position inside dams and reservoirs, in addition to discussing preventive measures taken to maximize the benefit from torrents and rainwaters, and ways to enhance the efficiency of inventory management in line with the vital requirements of the country, and the discussions resulted in the issuance of a set of binding recommendations. The decisions included directing the competent authorities to take engineering remedies and deterrent legal measures against those responsible for polluting the waters of Diyala River, in addition to approving the inclusion of the comprehensive technical evaluation and inspection project for dams and barrages within the investment vocabulary of the Ministry of Water Resources, while securing the necessary financial allocations and considering the file a top priority. The decisions also stipulated changing the job status of daily wage workers in the Mosul Dam to become contractors, in response to the continuous work requirements within the radical treatment project for the dam's foundations, as well as forming a central committee led by the Ministry of Water Resources and including representatives of relevant entities, aiming to reduce bureaucratic procedures and resolve intersections between water harvesting dam projects and other ministry projects. The session also witnessed the approval of the recommendations of the national team for the regional initiative to protect Tigris and Euphrates, including the Supreme Committee assuming direct supervision to ensure optimal implementation, and establishing a specialized committee to approve sectoral projects of priority and start their implementation. The recommendations concluded by emphasizing facilitating the mechanisms for including initiative projects within the investment budget, allocating the necessary financial resources for the first phase of strategic projects, while obliging entities and ministries responsible for pollution to take decisive steps to reduce it, and governorates commitment to install and operate treatment plants, while the Ministry of Environment assumes monitoring and detecting violations and taking legal action, in addition to involving civil society organizations to spread environmental awareness and protect water.
