ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – Baghdad is intensifying efforts to negotiate “equitable” water releases from Turkey, an official said on Sunday, adding that the two sides have no concrete agreement on water releases, with Iraq’s reserves frequently plummeting to dangerously low levels.

Iraqi authorities routinely blame upstream Turkey for withholding water releases, with around 90 percent of Iraq’s water sources originating from the neighboring country. Earlier this month, Iraq’s environment ministry called for international pressure on Ankara to increase the water flow.

Turkey and Iraq have made several deals on water releases. A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between Ankara and Baghdad at the end of 2014 says the Turkish side “guarantees Iraq a fair and equitable share of water,” however, over the past 12 years, the amount has remained unclear, Hisham al-Alawi, the Iraqi foreign ministry undersecretary, told state media.

He said the government is now intensifying efforts to negotiate water releases with Turkey because of the increasing concern about the country’s severe drought.

“The government is working through two parallel tracks, the first of which is intensifying negotiations with Turkey to reach a clear determination of a fair and equitable share, whether as a percentage or as a minimum of releases at the point of entry into Iraq,” Alawi said.

“The second track includes the exchange of information and the implementation of joint projects that contribute to improving the efficiency of water use, in a way that serves the interests of both countries,” he added.

While there is a 1987 agreement that stipulates Turkey must release at least 500 cubic meters per second to Syria through the Euphrates, with Iraq later receiving 58 percent of that quantity from Syria, the main source of water for Iraq in terms of overall volume is the Tigris River, Alawi explained, adding that no such amount has been specified for Iraq.

“There is an agreement between Iraq and Syria stipulating that Iraq will receive 58 percent of these water resources, compared to 42 percent for Syria,” he said, adding, “The main problem lies in the Tigris River, which is the most important for Iraq in terms of the volume of water resources.”

Iraqi authorities in July announced that Turkey had agreed to release an additional 420 cubic meters of water per second to Iraq from the upstream portions of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.

In October, the Green Iraq Observatory accused Ankara of not delivering on its promises of aiding Baghdad with its water shortage crisis, asserting that Iraq’s negotiation attempts with Turkey to solve the water shortage issues have “failed miserably.”

The organization warned in September that Turkey’s dam network has drastically reduced Iraq’s water inflows, intensifying an already severe crisis. Turkey has built about 20 dams over four decades, holding roughly 80 billion cubic meters of water, eight times the capacity of Iraq’s Mosul Dam.