Water ministers of Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Pakistan discuss water stress in region

CAIRO – 9 June 2022: Egyptian Water Minister Mohamed Abdel Attai met with his Syrian, Iraqi and Pakistani counterparts Tammam Raad, Mahdi Rashid Mahdi and Kazim Niaz, respectively, to discuss “the water reality,” on Wednesday.

The meeting was held on the sidelines of the Second High-level International Conference on the International Decade for Action “Water for Sustainable Development, 2018-2028,” which was held in the Tajik capital, Dushanbe, said SANA agency.

The meeting also tackled the Turkish measures regarding the construction of dams on the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, which caused water stress in the downstream countries of Iraq and Syria.

The Euphrates runs from Turkey to Syria and then to Iraq until it joins the Tigris in Shatt Al Arab in Iraq.

The Syrian regime and Iraq have accused Turkey of depriving the Syrians and Iraqis of their water shares of the Euphrates river.

The ebbing of Euphrates in Iraq has helped unearth an archeological city that dates back to Mittani Empire (1500 to 1350 B.C.E.).