Drought empties Umm al-Tus River in southern Iraq

Shafaq News – Maysan

The Umm al-Tus River in Maysan province has completely dried up amid worsening drought and reduced water releases, residents told Shafaq News on Saturday.

Once a lifeline for villages in the Abu Khassaf area, the river no longer provides water for drinking, farming, or livestock. “We used to fish and raise buffalo,” said resident Kadhim Kareem Hassan. “Now we travel long distances just to find clean water.”

Environmental activist Ahmed Saleh Neama told our agency that the river’s disappearance reflects a wider collapse of Iraq’s southern wetlands. “The pumping stations have stopped, and the Huweiza Marsh has also been cut off completely."

Abu al-Hasan al-Musafari, head of the Gilgamesh Foundation for Heritage and Marshes, explained that unregulated fish farms and unplanned agriculture have drained what little water remains, urging authorities to impose fixed quotas for the marshes.

The Green Iraq Observatory reported in July that Turkiye’s water release to Iraq had fallen 70 percent short of its pledged level, prompting officials to warn that inconsistent flows from upstream dams were worsening the drought. Without a binding water deal and stronger conservation efforts, they cautioned, rivers like Umm al-Tus could vanish for good.