Kurdistan’s water goes to waste

Mohammed Hussein

By Mohammed Hussein:

Iraqi Kurdistan is considered a rich region in the Middle East in terms of its water resources, but it does not have enough fish and local fresh food, due to a lack of investment in water and strategic agricultural projects.

Kurdistan’s water has been wasted in many ways. The lack of strategic agricultural projects that could provide Kurdistan’s population with useful foods coming from water is just one example of this waste, says Dr. Muhsin Ahmad Salah, a veterinary specialist in water and fish in Kurdistan.

Dr. Muhsin explains that, according to some global standards, everyone should consume 17 kilos of fish a year, but some informal surveys show the average annual consumption of fish per person in Kurdistan is only half a kilo.

Kurdistan’s water sources consist of rivers, springs and some industrial and traditional ways to extracting underground water, like digging wells.

Despite all these sources, local people mainly consume canned fish from Asia, Latin America and Australasia.

Dr. Muhsin says there are 5,000 springs and dozens of rivers and lakes in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, but all of them could not currently provide enough fish for local people because they are not correctly utilized.

On the issue of using pools to breed fish, he argues that Kurdistan’s water should be invested in to produce fish in a scientific way but that this has rarely happened to date.

He believes Kurdistan’s environment is suitable for this, adding that, “There are some successful projects fish breeding projects.” However, these few good examples can’t meet the local demand for fish.

Mohammed Hussein lives in Slemani where he is an editor for www.awenene.com.  In the last two years he has reported from Iraqi Kurdistan for various Kurdish and English publications. He has also worked as a translator and translated three books into Kurdish.

muhe79@yahoo.com

Copyright © 2013 Kurdistantribune.com

One Response to Kurdistan’s water goes to waste
  1. Kurdistan’s water goes to waste | kalear
    September 9, 2013 | 17:36

    […] Kurdistan’s water goes to waste […]

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