Sulaymaniyah rainfall exceeds last year’s total

Sulaymaniyah – Local officials in Sulaymaniyah say the city has seen a notable rise in rainfall, reaching a total of 586 millimeters, surpassing last year’s records by 15 millimeters.

Over the past 24 hours, the city received less than one millimeter of rainfall, but the cumulative precipitation for the year has reached 586 millimeters.

Baxtiar Taher, Head of Sulaymaniyah Water Administration, anticipates further rainfall, with forecasts suggesting that the total could approach or even exceed 1000 millimeters for the season.
“The region needs consistent rainfall of 800 millimeters or more annually over approximately eight to ten years to recover the lost 12 meters of groundwater,” Taher explained.

Highlighting a positive trend in precipitation over recent years, Taher expressed optimism that continued rainfall could replenish water reserves depleted during previous drought-affected years.

Due to past drought conditions, Sulaymaniyah’s groundwater levels had dropped by 12 meters.

Sulaimaniyah province is home to the Kurdistan Region’s two largest dams, Dukan and Darbandikhan, utilized for power generation, agriculture, and tourism. Despite the heavy rainfall, officials overseeing the dams recently informed 964media that the Dukan reservoir had reached only 40 percent of its full capacity, while the Darbandikhan reservoir had reached 88 percent of its full capacity.