Shafaq News- Al-Sulaymaniyah

Iraq’s Dukan Dam has risen to within 1.8 meters of full capacity after months of heavy rainfall and snowfall boosted water reserves across the Kurdistan Region, Dukan Dam Director Kochar Jamal told Shafaq News on Monday, marking one of the strongest recoveries in reservoir levels in the country.

Jamal said water levels are rising daily and could reach full capacity later this year if current inflow rates continue, adding that current levels were comparable to those recorded in 2003 and 2016 after years of severe water shortages across Iraq, including the Kurdistan Region.

Built in 1959 on the Lesser Zab River, Dukan Dam is one of Iraq’s oldest and most strategically important dams. The 116-meter-high concrete arch dam has a storage capacity of about 6.8 billion cubic meters of water and plays a major role in hydroelectric power generation, irrigation, flood control, and water management in northern Iraq. Rahman Khani, Director General of Dams and Reservoirs at the Kurdistan Regional Government’s Ministry of Agriculture and Water Resources, previously estimated that stored water at Dukan Dam had exceeded 5.7 billion cubic meters, with the reservoir operating at about 87% capacity.

Iraq has faced worsening water shortages in recent years due to declining rainfall, rising temperatures, and reduced river flows from neighboring countries, forcing authorities to scale back agricultural plans and repeatedly warn of shrinking strategic water reserves. However, multiple waves of rainfall and snowfall this year revived rivers, valleys, and natural springs across the Kurdistan Region, sharply increasing inflows into reservoirs after several years of declining water levels.