2 dams in Mosul to irrigate 6,000 donums

KIRKUK / IraqiNews.com: The city of Kirkuk witnessed on Saturday ceremonies to inaugurate the dams of Shireen and Bilkana to irrigate 6,000 donums in areas southwest and southeast of Kirkuk in the presence of Minister of Water Resources Abdellatif Jamal Rasheed and local officials. “The dams were built to store rain and torrential water for agricultural purposes and to provide the area with subterranean water as well as for tourist investment purposes,” Rasheed said in a speech on the occasion. “The area of land irrigated from the Shireen dam is up to 4,000 donums and that from the Bilkana dam is 2,000 donums,” he added. One Iraqi donum equals 2,000 square meters. For his part, Kirkuk Governor Abdelrahman Mustafa said the construction of these two dams is a major step on the path of agricultural development in Kirkuk in the near future. Shireen, which lies 14 km southwest of Kirkuk, will be storing rain water and will also be used for agricultural and drinking water purposes. Works on the 19-meter-high dam stared on January 1, 2008 and cost 5.3 billion Iraqi dinars. The 22-meter-high Bilkana, 22 km southeast of Kirkuk, cost 4.5 billion Iraqi dinars. Works on this dam started on November 11, 2007. The province of Kirkuk lies 250 km northeast of the Iraqi capital Baghdad. AmR (S)/SR 1