Water revenues in Western desert: an invitation to invest them

2024-06-25

The Planning and Databases Department at the Upper Euphrates Basin Developing Centre at University of Anbar announced a set of satellite images of a number of dams in the Iraqi Western Desert, according to Engineer Ahmed Ismail Odeh, a member of the centre’s staff. Satellite images taken by the European Space Agency for the period from April 23 to June 22, 2024, show that despite the interruption of the rainy season about two months ago, high temperatures, and high evaporation rates, most dams still retain very good storage quantities of water. Prof. Dr. Ammar Hatem Kamel, Director of the Centre, stressed that the data and images indicate the importance and necessity of investing and exploiting this water in establishing oases and natural reserves and increasing green spaces, in addition to supporting green belt projects to reduce the encroachment of desertification and reduce the effects of climate change, in addition to other development projects, including fish farms and reducing pressure or consumption of water imports in the Euphrates River.

The images showed that some of the reservoirs of dams with (relatively) large storage capacities in the region, such as the Rutba Dam (32 million cubic meters), the Alabiadh Dam (25 million cubic meters), the Horan 2 Dam (28 million cubic meters), and even other dams such as Shbeija and Husseiniya Dam (8 million cubic meters), and the um al-Tarfat Dam (7 million cubic meters), still maintain water storage and for two consecutive seasons 2022-2023 and 2023-2024, according to the meteorology available at the Upper Euphrates Basin Developing Centre in University of Anbar, which represents an important water wealth at a time when Iraq needs to invest any drop of water, and these dams represent an excellent means of groundwater recharge in the region, which can be resorted to in dry seasons, which represents the sustainability of any green projects that can be implemented in the region, it is noteworthy that the Upper Euphrates Basin Developing Centre, in implementation of the University of Anbar's strategic plan to achieve the goals of sustainable development within Vision 2030, has developed an ambitious program for meteorology and monitoring climate change in the region.

To view satellite images of the dams of the western region:

Horan valley Dam ... Click here

Alabiadh Dam ... Click here    

Rutbah dam ... Click here

Ga’ara dam ... Click here

Husseiniya Dam ... Click here

#university_of_anbar

#Upper_Euphrates_Basin_Developing_Center