“While Mosul Dam has the capacity to hold 11 billion cubic meters of water, currently only two billion cubic meters of water remain in it,” Ahmed Dubardani, a member of the Nineveh Provincial Council’s agriculture and water committee, told Rudaw on Saturday.
Dubardani warned that the lack of water at the dam will have “negative consequences for the entire country.”
“The reduced water releases from Turkey is the main reason. Turkey should be releasing 600 cubic meters per second of Tigris River water, but it is only releasing 100 cubic meters per second,” Dubardani explained.
Iraq is facing a severe water shortage because of reduced precipitation, higher temperatures, mismanagement, and upstream dams in neighbouring countries. It ranks among the most vulnerable countries in the world to the effects of climate change, according to the United Nations.
Iraq does not have a comprehensive water-sharing agreement with Turkey and Iran and this, combined with a drier winter this year, has made the situation more critical.
In early July, Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani ordered the monitoring of water flows from Turkey, after a meeting between parliament speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
According to an Iraqi parliament statement at the time, Erdogan approved Mashhadani's “request to release 420 cubic meters of water per second daily."
But Dubardani said that the decision has not been implemented.
“We have not seen this decision implemented practically. The amount of water release is small and nothing significant has changed,” he said.
According to Dubardani, the problem has been exacerbated by poor management.
“The management of the dam’s affairs is very poor. The government had previously ordered the dam’s administration to release 600 cubic meters per second for the southern provinces, which created enormous pressure on the dam,” he said, calling on Baghdad to “quickly resolve this problem.”
The World Resources Institute places Iraq among 25 countries that face extreme water stress, meaning that it is using over 80 percent of its available supply of water and is at risk of running out of water in case of any short-term drought.
Water scarcity in Iraq is also pushing families in severe drought-struck regions to the brink. In late July, migration and displaced ministry spokesperson Ali Abbas told Rudaw that over 17,000 families have migrated from the Basra, Dhi Qar, and Maysan provinces in the past decade due to “drought, water scarcity, and desertification.”
Public pressure is also growing. Southern provinces like Basra have seen widespread protests in recent weeks over severe water shortages and pollution.
Nahro Mohammed contributed to this report.
