According to Alhayat, Iraqi water resources minister, Lotfi Jamal Rashid said that his ministry’s share out of the entire Iraqi budget is 352.5 Billion Dinar (more then 255 billion Dollars). He said he was optimistic about the ministry capabilities to implement water projects in the various Iraqi provinces.
He conveyed that the budget is not huge, but he expressed his hope to get additional financial aid form international organizations, and donor countries. He emphasized that the area of Alahwar is in the ministry’s top priority, because the previous Iraqi regime neglected that area intentionally.
In addition, the minister has mentioned that he will activate all water agreements with neighboring countries namely Syria, Iran and Turkey to find just solution for the allocations of water from the various resources. He also mentioned that there is a plan to build new dams and completing the construction of Bokhma dam (400 Km north of Baghdad). This dam, which its construction costs are put at 1.5 billion US Dollars, will provide a total capacity of more than 17 billion M3 of water, and generate electricity to the amount of 1800 megawatts.
