Iraq’s water reserves fall below 8 billion cubic meters as shortage deepens
Shafaq News
Iraq’s water storage has fallen to less than eight billion cubic meters, a threshold the Ministry of Water Resources says can barely cover drinking water and limited household use until next winter. The shortfall has left tributaries dry, shrunk marshes, and reduced reservoirs to just 8 percent of capacity, deepening a crisis that is no longer only environmental but also economic and political.
Officials attribute the decline to scarce rainfall and restricted releases from Turkiye, which controls most of the Tigris and Euphrates flows. Ghazwan al-Sahlani, Deputy Director General of the General Authority for Irrigation Projects, told Shafaq News that available reserves are being allocated according to population size, cultivated land, and essential needs, with operations rooms established in each province to monitor distribution and curb violations.
Al-Sahlani explained that Baghdad has presented technical data to Ankara detailing Iraq’s requirements, including agricultural and long-term needs, but the cross-border flows “remain far below demand.”
Current discharges from Turkiye average around 200 cubic meters per second, forcing Iraq to rely heavily on stored reserves in Haditha, Mosul, Dokan, Darbandikhan, and Tharthar Lake to maintain supplies of 850–900 cubic meters per day.
The government, according to Al-Sahlani, is reviewing plans to build 36 small dams to capture rainwater and seasonal runoff, but progress has been slow. Meanwhile, reliance on traditional irrigation for wheat and rice continues to consume large volumes, accelerating the depletion of already limited reserves.
Thair Mukheef, a member of parliament’s Agriculture, Water and Marshes Committee, described the situation as “dangerous and frightening,” pointing out that combined flows from the Tigris and Euphrates now stand at just 320 million cubic meters.
“The government must press Ankara more forcefully…Turkiye’s reservoirs are full, and releasing Iraq’s share would not significantly reduce them,” he told Shafaq News.
Figures obtained by our agency show the gap between inflows and demand is widening: Iraq currently receives around 1.19 billion cubic meters of water each month, while actual demand reaches 2.53 billion. Daily consumption for drinking and environmental needs alone exceeds 900 cubic meters per second, a threshold increasingly difficult to sustain.
The implications extend beyond household shortages. Agriculture faces major disruption, particularly in the south, where farmers are already abandoning lands or shifting to less water-intensive crops. Marshland communities — custodians of a UNESCO-listed ecosystem — confront shrinking habitats and livelihoods, raising the specter of migration and renewed social unrest.
Written and edited by Shafaq News staff.
