ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – An Iraqi lawmaker warned on Monday that the country is facing its worst drought season since the establishment of the Iraqi state, with critically low water reserves in the dams, a day after Baghdad and Ankara signed a new water-management agreement. 

“This quantity of water is insufficient to secure drinking water, especially in the southern provinces located in the tail ends of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers,” lawmaker Hassan Warwish al-Asadi told The New Region.

He cautioned that the situation is “very dangerous,” warning of a “widespread humanitarian and environmental crisis” if urgent measures are not implemented. 

Iraqi authorities routinely blame upstream Turkey for withholding water releases. Around 90 percent of Iraq’s water sources originate from Turkey.

"The water releases coming from Turkey do not exceed a quarter of the agreed amount, which has exacerbated the crisis during the past months, despite the repeated warnings issued regarding the decline in water levels,” Asadi stated. 

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan visited Baghdad on Sunday for talks with his Iraqi counterpart Fuad Hussein. During the visit, the two sides announced the signing of a new agreement aimed at jointly managing water resources and addressing Iraq’s worsening water shortages. 

Fidan said cooperation with Baghdad “must reach the highest levels,” calling the deal the first of its kind and a step toward reforming water infrastructure.

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani oversaw the signing of the executive mechanism for broader cooperation on water between Iraq and Turkey. His office said that Baghdad aims to provide sustainable solutions to the water crisis through major joint projects with Ankara. 

The visit came amid growing pressure from Iraqi officials and environmental organizations, who say Turkey’s growing dam network has sharply reduced the flow of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, deepening Iraq’s drought. 

The Green Iraq Observatory, an environmental organization, warned in early 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.

The Observatory's report was followed less than a month later by a statement from the Iraqi agricultural ministry, saying that the country’s water reserves have dropped to dangerous levels. The ministry warned that rationing had become essential to protect water security.