The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) aims to finalise agreements by the end of 2014 for a total of seven dam and reservoir projects with a total value of $4bn to be built in 12-year public-private partnership (PPP) deals, the MEED Kurdistan Projects conference in Erbil was told this morning. The seven projects will have aggregate power generation capacity of 1,000MW.
The PPPs will be signed with four companies that have been selected to work on the Ministry of Agriculture & Water Resources of the KRG’s dam PPP project programme.
“The expected date of the start-up of work on the projects is at the beginning of 2015,” general director for dams at the Ministry of Agriculture & Water Akram Rasul said.
“At present we have reservoir water storage capacity 10bn cubic and needs of 11.2bn cubic metres a year,” Rasul said. He said that Iraqi Kurdistan’s will need 17bn cubic metres of reservoir capacity in 2020.
Rasul said that the KRG has more than 30 dams under construction and there are plans to build a total of 40 new dams. These are designed to increase the combined capacity of reservoirs in Iraqi Kurdistan to 17bn cubic metres in 2020 and make the region water self-sufficient.
The three largest dams under construction are at Basara, Bastora and Bawanoor. The region has three operational major dams: at Dohuk, Dokan and Darben.
Rasul said that about 30bn cubic metres of water flowed through Iraqi Kurdistan in five rivers: Great Zab, Little Zab, Seerwan, Khapoo and Awaspee. About 50 per cent of the water in these rivers is sourced in Iraqi Kurdistan.
“During the summer and dry seasons, water flow is significantly reduced and needs to be supplemented by dams,” Rasul said. “Kurdistan also has significant water resources of annual rainfall. Most of it is lost.”
“We aim to increase the production capacity of all lands with farming potential; provide the necessary water resources and build new hydropower capacity,” Rasul said. ”The main issues facing agriculture are lack of an updated land inventory, construction of new dam and reservoir capacity and planning for resettlement of people displaced by dam and reservoir projects.”
Rasul said that a masterplan for the development of Iraqi Kurdistan’s dams is now complete. He said the KRG plans to develop a comprehensive water resource management plan.
MEED’s Kurdistan Projects 2014 Conference was organised in collaboration with the Kurdistan Regional Government, the KDBC and the UKTI. Taqa is strategic event partner. Conference sponsors are Drake & Scull, Falcon Group and Hill International. Jotun is exhibitor and Parson is networking event sponsor.