Shafaq News– Al-Muthanna

Al-Muthanna province in southern Iraq is receiving less than 1% of its allocated water from the Euphrates River system, a local official said on Sunday.

Mohammad Talib, head of the province’s water authority, told Shafaq News that releases regulated through Saddat Al-Hindiya are divided under a long-standing formula that allocates 45% to Al-Diwaniyah, 45% to Babil and 10% to Al-Muthanna. He said the system, based on historic agricultural land, no longer reflects current needs and should be recalculated according to population.

A roughly 10-km stretch in the province’s north now receives no water, while the Al-Muthanna section of Shatt Al-Hilla, a Euphrates branch, has dried up entirely, he added. The province is now relying on supplementary flows from the main Euphrates channel, which he described as insufficient and increasingly saline.

The Ministry of Water Resources did not comment on the remarks, though it earlier reported that inflows to the Tigris-Euphrates basin in 2025 fell to about 27% of the previous year’s levels, while active storage in major reservoirs dropped to the lowest levels in decades.

Meanwhile, in Iraqi Kurdistan, farmers told Shafaq News that heavier rainfall this season has improved water availability in parts of Duhok province that depend largely on rain-fed agriculture, enabling wider planting of wheat and barley after drought reduced cultivation last year.

Rainfall exceeding 300 millimeters is generally considered sufficient for a viable rain-fed harvest, they added. Despite the improved conditions, the farmers cited persistent challenges, including high fuel costs, weak marketing channels, and a lack of processing facilities, which continue to weigh on production margins.

Read more: Iraq’s water crisis deepens: Reserves collapse, mismanagement continues