Within 10 years, Iraq will buy water for twice prices of selling a barrel of oil

Shafaq News / A member of the Parliamentary Economic Committee warned today, Monday, that after 10 years, Iraq will buy water from Turkey and Iran due to the lack of dams and the failure to build new dams, calling for the need to use economic pressure on the two countries in order to obtain water.

MP Ghaleb Muhammad said, in an interview with Shafaq News agency, that "every year, Iraq suffers more from water shortage," indicating that "this problem is due to the water source countries and to the government."

Ghaleb added, "If not building new dams, after ten years, Iraq will buy water from Turkey and Iran for twice prices of selling a barrel of oil."

He stressed that "Iraq is a consumer country and imports most of its needs from Turkey and Iran, and therefore using the economic pressure is the best way in this regard."

He pointed out that "the volume of trade exchange with Turkey in 2019 is more than 20 billion dollars, and with Iran is more than 40 billion Dollars, therefore failing to deal with these two countries in this file will certainly affect them especially with their suffer from hard currency deficit."

It is noteworthy that Iraq suffers yearly from a water shortage as a result of building dams on rivers, the last of which is the construction of Turkish Ilisu Dam on Dijlah River, which deprives Iraq of its share and thus negatively affects agriculture and other uses of water.