KRG General Directorate of Water and Sewage considers building Ifraz Station-4
The General Directorate of Water and Sewage last year started to implement the remaining section of the Ifraz Plant-3 project, which provides drinking water to the city of Erbil, in order to reduce the pressure on the other stations.
In a statement to KRG.org the Director General of Water and Sewage in the Kurdistan Region, Sahand Sirwan Ahmad, said that the increase in the demand for consuming drinking water "has pushed the water-producing stations in the Kurdistan Region to work 24 hours a day, where they work at maximum capacity without any rotation during the summer season. This has led to increased pressure on all the stations. This is why completing the remaining 40 percent of the Ifraz Station-3 was necessary."
This remaining part of the project is being funded by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) as a long-term loan. It is expected to be completed by the end of this year.
The purpose of the Ifraz Station-4 project is to respond to the possible increase in demand for drinking water in the event that the Ifraz Station-3 can not meet the demand due to the city of Erbil’s projected rise in population. It is expected that the cost of building the Ifraz Station-4 will reach close to $600 million.
Ifraz Station-1 was built in 1969 with a production capacity of 1680 cubic meters per hour. It was designed to replace wells which were considered among the main sources of drinking water in Erbil but were under the threat of drought. This was followed by the establishment of the Ifraz Station-2 in 1984, with a capacity of 2880 cubic meters per hour. From 2005 – 2007 approximately 60 percent of Ifraz Station-3 was built, as at the time it was not necessary to complete the entire project. The Ifraz Station-3 has a capacity of 6000 cubic meters per hour, and was built by the US Army Corps of Engineers at a cost of $204 million.
The Ifraz water stations are named after the village of Ifraz, located close to these stations by the Upper Zab River. The stations are dedicated to provide drinking water to the city of Erbil and its surroundings.
The Ifraz project is considered one of the largest projects in the Kurdistan Region.
