Syria, Iraq sign agreement to regulate water resources between the two countries

As Iraq bakes under a blistering summer heat wave, its hard-scrabble farmers and herders are battling severe water shortages that are killing their animals, fields and way of life. (File/AFP)

DUBAI: Iraq and Syria signed an agreement on Saturday to regulate water resources between the two countries, state news agency INA reported. 
Iraq’s Minister of Water Resources, Mahdi Rashid Al-Hamdani, and his Syrian counterpart, Tammam Raad, signed a joint agreement to exchange data related to the imports of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers “periodically and in emergency situations."
The pact also includes the creation of technical committees and unification of positions regarding the quantities of water received at the Turkish-Syrian border. 
The two sides also agreed to a joint cooperation, an exchange in experiences, an increase in bilateral technical and administrative meetings as well as sharing the effects of the decline in water imports and the impact of climate change.