ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – Iraqi Minister of Water Resources Aoun Diab on Thursday revealed that they are preparing for an integrated project to sustain the country’s marshes.

“The program includes installing a major pumping station with 11 secondary pumps on the dam between the marshes and a city in the province of Dhi Qar, with the aim of passing a fixed water share of (17 to 20 cubic meters) per second,” Diab told the Iraqi state newspaper.

Earlier in February, Iraq announced the launch of the country’s largest water project in Karbala province, with a capacity 16 thousand cubic meters per hour, as efforts intensify to tackle the long-standing issues and shortages of the country’s water supply, exacerbated by upstream dams constructed by Turkey along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.

Diab added that “the procedures also include adhering to the system of rotation and alternation in irrigation, in order to enhance the inflows to the Euphrates River column, and towards the central marshes… through feeders, as they are considered a tourist attraction area”

He detailed that the plans also include “reviving Lake Razzaza in Karbala province, by directing sewage water directly into the lake. There is an intention to identify specific areas of the lake to confine the water and develop it, as it is a source of fish wealth.”

In April 2024, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited Iraq for the first time in years and met with Iraqi President Abdul Latif Rashid and Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani to address several contentious topics, especially the management of shared water resources.

Erdogan’s visit ended in the signing of 26 memoranda and agreements between Sudani and the Turkish president. 

Iraq was “named the fifth-most vulnerable country to climate breakdown,” according to a 2022 United Nations publication “affected by soaring temperatures, insufficient and diminishing rainfall, intensified droughts and water scarcity.” 

The publication added that pollution to Iraq’s water has added to the water scarcity, caused by oil and gas fields, as well as large dam projects in the region, forcing marsh dwellers to relocate in search of clean water supply for their livestock in addition to the scarcity.