Illegal fish farms shut as Iraq’s water crisis deepens

Shafaq News – Saladin

Iraq began draining 1,020 unauthorized fishponds in Saladin province, the Water Resources Ministry said on Sunday, to conserve water amid the country’s worst drought in decades.

Four consecutive years of declining rainfall and rising temperatures have driven the Tigris and Euphrates — Iraq’s main water sources for agriculture, drinking, and industry — to historic lows.

Ahmed Abbas, director of Water Resources in Saladin’s Al-Ishaqi, said 680 ponds have already been drained, with more than 340 still in progress. The effort, he noted, aims to protect shrinking reserves, curb waste, and ensure fair distribution of quotas during severe scarcity.

Unauthorized lakes used for fish farming have surged from nearly 2,000 between 2014 and 2017 to more than 5,000 in 2023, far exceeding the government’s limit of 330 million cubic meters for the sector, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

These illegal farms consume roughly 2 billion cubic meters of water each year — double Jordan’s entire annual supply — and have contributed to the shrinking of natural water bodies, including Lake Habbaniyah, the Center added.

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