{"id":3399,"date":"2025-10-20T12:37:03","date_gmt":"2025-10-20T12:37:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2025\/10\/20\/water-salinity-hurting-farmers-livestock-in-iraq\/"},"modified":"2025-10-20T12:37:03","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T12:37:03","slug":"water-salinity-hurting-farmers-livestock-in-iraq","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2025\/10\/20\/water-salinity-hurting-farmers-livestock-in-iraq\/","title":{"rendered":"Water salinity hurting farmers, livestock in Iraq"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Iraqi farmer Umm Ali has watched her poultry die as salinity levels in the country\u2019s south have reached record highs, rendering already scarce water unfit for human consumption and killing livestock.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe used to drink, wash and cook with water from the river, but now it\u2019s hurting us,\u201d said Umm Ali, 40, who lives in the once watery Al-Mashab marshes of southern Iraq\u2019s Basra province.<\/p>\n

This season alone, she said, brackish water has killed dozens of her ducks and 15 chickens.<\/p>\n

\u201cI cried and grieved, I felt as if all my hard work had been wasted,\u201d said the widowed mother of three.<\/p>\n

Iraq, a country heavily affected by climate change, has been ravaged for years by drought and low rainfall.<\/p>\n

Declining freshwater flows have increased salt and pollution levels, particularly in the south, where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers converge before spilling into the Gulf.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe haven\u2019t seen such high levels of salinity in 89 years,\u201d Iraq\u2019s Ministry of Water Resources spokesman, Khaled Shamal, said.<\/p>\n

Last month, salinity levels recorded in the central Basra province soared to almost 29,000 parts per million compared with 2,600ppm last year, according to a Water Ministry report.<\/p>\n

Freshwater should contain less than 1,000ppm of dissolved salts, while ocean water salinity levels are about 35,000ppm, according to the United States Geological Survey.<\/p>\n

\"A
A man holds a bottle of water on the farm of Zuleikha Hashim Taleb (L) in the village of al-Mashab, where crops are affected by high water salinity. [Hussein Faleh\/AFP]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Tigris and the Euphrates converge at Basra\u2019s Shatt al-Arab waterway \u201claden with pollutants accumulated along their course\u201d, said Hasan al-Khateeb, an expert from Iraq\u2019s University of Kufa.<\/p>\n

In recent weeks, the Euphrates has seen its lowest water levels in decades, and Iraq\u2019s artificial lake reserves are at their lowest in recent history.<\/p>\n

Khateeb warned that the Shatt al-Arab\u2019s water levels had plummeted and it was failing to hold back the seawater from the Gulf.<\/p>\n

Farmer Zulaykha Hashem, 60, said the water in the area had become very brackish this year, adding that she must wait for the situation to improve to irrigate her crop of pomegranate trees, figs and berries.<\/p>\n

According to the United Nations, almost a quarter of women in Basra and nearby provinces work in agriculture.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe cannot even leave. Where would we go?\u201d Hashem said, in a country where farmers facing drought and rising salinity often find themselves trapped in a cycle of water crisis.<\/p>\n

The UN\u2019s International Organization for Migration, which documents climate-induced displacement in Iraq, has warned that increased water salinity is destroying palm groves, citrus trees and other crops.<\/p>\n

As of October last year, some 170,000 people had been displaced in central and southern Iraq due to climate-related factors, according to the agency.<\/p>\n

Water scarcity pushed Maryam Salman, who is in her 30s, to leave nearby Missan province for Basra several years ago, hoping her buffalo could enjoy the Shatt al-Arab.<\/p>\n

\"A
A man holds a handful of spoiled dates in the village of al-Mashab. [Hussein Faleh\/AFP]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Rising salinity is not the only problem now, said Salman, a mother of three children.<\/p>\n

\u201cWater is not available \u2026 neither summer nor winter,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The Tigris and the Euphrates originate in Turkiye, and Iraqi authorities have repeatedly blamed dams across the border for significantly reducing their flows.<\/p>\n

Iraq, a country with inefficient water management systems after decades of war and neglect, receives less than 35 percent of its allocated share of water from the two rivers, according to authorities.<\/p>\n

Khateeb from the University of Kufa said, in addition to claiming its share of the rivers, Iraq must pursue desalination projects in the Shatt al-Arab.<\/p>\n

In July, the government announced a desalination project in Basra with a capacity of 1 million cubic metres per day.<\/p>\n

Local residents said the brackish water is also impacting fish stocks.<\/p>\n

Hamdiyah Mehdi said her husband, who is a fisherman, returns home empty-handed more frequently.<\/p>\n

She blamed the Shatt al-Arab\u2019s \u201cmurky and salty water\u201d for his short temper after long days without a catch, and for her children\u2019s persistent rash.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has been tough,\u201d said Mehdi, 52, noting the emotional toll on the family as well as on their health and livelihood.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe take our frustrations out on each other.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Iraqi farmer Umm Ali has watched her poultry die as salinity levels in the country\u2019s south have reached record highs, rendering already scarce water unfit for human consumption and killing livestock. \u201cWe used to drink, wash and cook with water from the river, but now it\u2019s hurting us,\u201d said Umm Ali, 40, who lives in … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3400,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3399"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3399\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}