Iraq dam authority says flood waves under control as storms boost national water storage

BAGHDAD – Iraq’s General Authority for Dams and Reservoirs said Thursday that technical teams have fully controlled incoming flood waves at major dams and are directing the water to support national storage levels and agricultural needs, after several days of widespread rainfall and flooding across Iraq and the Kurdistan Region.

The agency said the recent storm system, the second major wave of winter weather this year, has raised reservoir levels at Dukan, Darbandikhan, Mosul and other dams and delivered large inflows to the Tigris basin.

Wesam Khalaf Obeid, director general of the authority, told state media “the technical teams have fully controlled the flood waves arriving at the fronts of the Hamrin, Dukan, Darbandikhan, Mosul and other dams,” adding that the inflows are being contained and stored in their reservoirs “to strengthen the country’s water balance.” He said water released downstream from these dams, particularly along the stretch from south of Mosul to Samarra, is being managed through the Samarra Barrage, where part of the flow is directed toward Baghdad to meet water needs and surplus volumes are diverted for storage in Lake Tharthar.

Obeid said rainfall across Iraq has provided “a full irrigation cycle” for crops included in the winter agricultural plan, allowing the ministry to reduce releases from all dams after completing the first irrigation round and conserve storage for next summer. He added that much of the rainwater in the southern governorates, as well as flood waters arriving from Iran, is being routed “to revive the marshes,” while part of the flow is used to push back salinity in the Shatt al-Arab and improve water quality.

The latest storms followed a week of severe weather that caused deadly flooding in several districts. In Chamchamal in Sulaymaniyah governorate, two people were killed and others injured when floods swept through residential areas, destroying more than 500 homes. In Kalar, a child drowned after being pulled into a main water pipe. In Kirkuk governorate, a 9-year-old girl died when flood waters swept her away in Farqani village.

Hundreds of fish ponds collapsed in Taqtaq subdistrict as river levels surged, while local governments in Sulaymaniyah and Halabja suspended official work as emergency teams cleared debris. Reservoirs across the Kurdistan Region recorded large gains, with more than 100 million cubic meters added to Dukan and Darbandikhan alone, easing pressure on dams that entered winter at historically low levels after years of drought.

Obeid said the authority will continue monitoring inflows as the weather system persists and will issue a detailed technical report once the low-pressure system fully dissipates.