Iraq’s northern Kurdistan region is getting a new sewage system worth USD 288 mn with financing from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), the company said in a statement picked up by Zawya yesterday. The plant will have a capacity of 840k cubic meters per day. The project, which is now open for bidding by prospective contractors, will include a stormwater collection network at a later stage.

JICA is funding other water-related projects in Iraq, including the Al Basra Grand Water Project (pdf), and its continued expansion, UNDP Iraq tweeted. Phases 3 and 4 of the project were commissioned in 2022, with an eye to expand capacity to 200k cubic meters per day — an amount that will provide clean drinking water for approximately two mn people in Basra.

Iraq’s entire water infrastructure is in need of an overhaul: Iraq’s water supply has been drying up for decades, decreasing by an estimated 30-40% over a 40-year period ending in 2018. Iraq was named (pdf) the world’s fifth most vulnerable to decreased water and food availability. The country is vulnerable to water-related conflict and climate change, and has been suffering from a lack of wastewater infrastructure. Allocating funding for the latter was one of several solutions proposed for the water-poor country.

Want to read more about Iraq’s water issues? We have explainers on the topic here and here.