Heavy rains push Bastora Dam to capacity in Erbil
Shafaq News- Erbil
Bastora Dam in Erbil, the capital of Iraq’s Kurdistan Region, has reached full capacity and begun controlled overflow following days of heavy rainfall.
Speaking with Shafaq News, Beston Jalizadeh, the project’s supervising engineer, explained that water levels peaked within hours, triggering a natural discharge through designated channels, with excess flows directed toward the Greater Zab River.
The 30-meter-high dam, built between 2023 and 2024, has a
storage capacity of 20 million cubic meters and is designed to support water
storage, tourism, fish resources, and flood protection for downstream areas.
Heavy spring rains have swept across Iraq in recent days, raising water levels in the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and disrupting roads while isolating some communities. The surge has also significantly boosted water reserves in major dams, with Dukan and Darbandikhan alone absorbing more than 242 million cubic meters in the Kurdistan Region.
