Announcing an Iraqi-Japanese cooperation to form water user associations in agricultural lands

The Ministry of Water Resources signed today, Sunday, a study to publish water user associations in agricultural lands, in cooperation with the Ministry of Agriculture and the Japanese JICA Agency, in the presence of the Japanese Ambassador in Baghdad.

The Minister of Water Resources, Aoun Dhiab, said, in a joint press conference with the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Agriculture and the Japanese Ambassador, that “the meeting with the Ministry of Agriculture and the Japanese Embassy discussed the formation of water user associations, which is a new method for saving water and increasing agricultural yields, and this is the result of long work since 2014 to spread the formation of water user associations and to follow modern inexpensive technologies, which had a significant impact on supporting the agricultural process, such as the use of laser technology to level agricultural lands in a way that facilitates irrigation quickly, the use of cultivators in crop cultivation, and the mechanical method with inexpensive devices, which gave positive results.

He added, “Studies conducted on one of the associations in Basra governorate gave important results, and the experiment had a significant impact in reducing the quantities of water used and increasing agricultural production at the same time, which are joint efforts of government agencies, the private sector and the Japanese Agency.”

He explained, “This is the first stage for publishing water user associations, and now it is going to continue in the second stage later to expand by publishing these associations, which have a significant impact on providing water resources to suit Iraq’s need for water.”/ End

Source: National Iraqi News Agency