Shafaq News- Baghdad

More than 1,000 tons of fish have died in Iraq this year, with recurring die-offs exposing mounting water-management and pollution failures, the Green Iraq Observatory warned on Saturday.

The first major episode struck the Tigris and Diyala rivers in April, with losses concentrated in Wasit province after contamination from untreated sewage and industrial waste. The Observatory stated that increased releases from Hamrin Dam carried accumulated pollutants toward the Tigris, causing more than 20 poisoning and skin-injury cases that required hospital treatment.

Iyad Al-Talibi, head of the Iraqi Association of Fish Producers, estimated Wasit’s losses at between 1,000 and 1,200 tons, with around 95% of floating fish cages in Kut affected. He linked the deaths to sewage contamination carried from the Diyala River into the Tigris.

A second die-off was recorded in early August in Al-Amshan Canal in Maysan province. The provincial council’s Agriculture and Water Committee attributed the deaths to a sharp decline in water releases, while environmental activist Murtada Al-Janoubi reported fish deaths across Al-Amshan Canal, Al-Ezz River and the central marshes. He explained that receding water concentrates fish in narrow channels and reduces oxygen levels.

Iraq’s water reserves stand at about 34 billion cubic meters, with major dams around 70% to 80% full, according to Water Resources Ministry spokesperson Khalid Shamal. The Green Iraq Observatory argued that the available reserves point to failures in water distribution rather than scarcity alone.

The watchdog identified low dissolved oxygen, decomposing organic material, harmful algae, untreated sewage and industrial discharge, prolonged drought and poor allocation of water shares between provinces as recurring drivers of fish deaths.

Mass fish deaths have recurred across Iraq, including tens of thousands of tons in Babil in 2018, millions around Al-Hindiya Barrage and Al-Dalmaj Marsh in 2020, several tons in Maysan in 2023, and widespread losses in Najaf last year. The group said most cases ended with temporary investigations and no clear accountability. A later UN-backed probe attributed the 2018 outbreak to koi herpesvirus.

Read more: Fish die-offs recur across Iraq's Mesopotamian marshes

In July, Water Resources Minister Muthanna Al-Tamimi stated that the ministry had filed lawsuits against parties responsible for polluting the Tigris and Diyala rivers, while the Water Resources and Environment ministries were jointly inspecting pollution sources.

Read more: Death in the current: Pollution decimates Iraq’s river ecosystems

Calling for stable water allocations to provinces and marshes, tighter oversight of sewage and industrial facilities, an early-warning system for oxygen levels and pollutants, and compensation for affected fish farmers, the body warned that continued failures threaten Iraq’s food and water security, biodiversity and the livelihoods of tens of thousands of families dependent on fisheries.