Baghdad Minister of Water Resources Mahdi Rashid Al-Hamdani met his counterpart the Tajik Minister of Water and Energy Daler Duma on the sidelines of the 9th World Water Forum / Dakar 2022.
Al-Hamdani stressed, according to a statement by the ministry, the critical importance of water to meet the challenges of climate change and achieve food and energy security in the midst of competition for water shares among riparian countries without binding agreements that establish the right of countries to obtain their sufficient water shares in quantity and quality.
He stressed the importance of sharing harm in cases of scarcity, as in benefit-sharing, which was emphasized by countries within the recommendations of the Ninth Global Forum.
For his part, the Tajik minister clarified: “Water brings all countries together despite the distances and borders,” noting the importance of implementing the recommendations of the recent global climate conferences in maintaining temperatures, which caused their rapid rise and increase in snowmelt and consequently the rise in sea level and exposing the lowlands to danger.
He continued, “Tajikistan is a country at the source of a group of rivers that flow in the countries of Central Asia, but it has agreements that establish the rights of riparian countries, and they are constantly updated in joint consultation.”
The Tajik minister invited the minister to participate in the water conference to be held in Tajikistan next June.
Al-Hamdani expressed his hope that the riparian countries of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers will reach common understandings that prove their water rights from the two rivers, stressing that Iraq continues in these endeavors within the legal frameworks and international norms.
Source: National Iraqi News Agency