Erdogan says Turkey starts pumping water to Iraq

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan reiterated his pledge to pump water to Iraq. This came in a verbal message received by Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi, according to a statement of al-Hashemi’s office. “Al-Hashemi received a verbal message from Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s office regarding the increase of Iraq’s share of water,” said the statement received by IraqiNews.com news agency. “Erdogan asserted that Turkey has started already pumping more water to Iraq (515 cubic metres per second),” the statement added, noting that this started as of Wednesday (June 17). “The amount of water will increase gradually to reach 715 cubic metres per second during summer,” the premier added. SH (P) 1