Hill Lakes as a Technique of Water Harvesting; Kurdistan Region as a Case Study

The demand for water in Kurdistan Region is very essential to cover the activities of drinking, domestic, irrigation, hydro-electric power generation, recharging the ground water, and other purposes. To cover these activities and taking into account the population growth and global changes, it is very important to make plans for water resources sustainability. One of the techniques which can be followed is to investigate, design, and construct hill lakes as a method of water harvesting. In Kurdistan Region the plan consists of three stages; hill lakes which are constructed, hill lakes which are under construction, and hill lakes which are investigated and designed but they are not constructed yet. Later the plan was extended to cover the construction of medium size hill lakes. Kurdistan Region has 03 billion cubic meters of surface water resources and five billion cubic meters of ground water. Kurdistan Region faced the threat of water shortages due to drought. Increasing population density and demand have impact on water stress in Kurdistan Region. Thus, Water harvesting is a tool for collecting rainwater, surface and subsurface runoff for later beneficial uses in the region. This study outlines the dam projects that are completed and under constructed in Kurdistan Region. Moreover, water harvesting technique using small dams in Kurdistan Region Government are discussed.

Keywords:

Kurdistan Region , water harvesting , dams