The fish wealth in Iraq has been severely affected by the sudden death of thousands of tons of fish on the farms of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in the south of the country. The rivers suffer from a drop in water levels due to dams and water activities in Turkey and Iran.
Areas of Babylon, Karbala, Najaf and Diwaniya recorded tens of thousands of tonnes of river cages and fish farms on both rivers.
"We planted 70 thousand fish and we suffered a loss of 450 thousand dollars .. all died .. Menin Najib?" Said Nihad Saleh, owner of a fish farm for Sky News Arab.
Officials and experts attributed the causes of the crisis to low water levels in the Tigris and Euphrates due to weak water pumping from Turkey after the new dams established on the two rivers.
Neighbors roam
Iraq is suffering from a significant decline in the level of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, due to the construction of dams in Turkey and cutting off some of Iran's tributaries of the Tigris River.
Ankara is currently filling the giant Elso dam, which is expected to reduce Iraq's share of the Tigris River flow from about 738 billion cubic feet to 343 billion cubic feet per year.
About 30 per cent of the annual flow of the Tigris flows from Iran, where the Daran Dam is due to be completed this year, which, according to experts, will reduce the flow of water through the Sirwan River by up to 60 per cent and leave many areas of central and southern Iraq without supplies Enough.
Turkey is building 22 dams on the Tigris and Euphrates in the southeast Anatolia project to reclaim a large area of agricultural land, three times more than Turkey's water needs, according to estimates.
Deputy Minister of Agriculture Ali Murad Akbari said two weeks ago that his country will cut about 7 billion cubic meters of water towards the western and northwestern borders of Iraq, ordered by Iranian leader Ali Khamenei, adding that these quantities will be used in projects covering an area of 770 hectares south and west Iran.
Iraqi parliament speaker Mohamed Halabousi said earlier this month that he would discuss the issue of water scarcity with both Turkey and Iran, which underscores the intensity of the two rivers affected by the activities of neighboring countries.
Low water level
Local media quoted Agriculture Ministry Spokesman Hamid Nayef as saying that the crisis was due to the bacterial rot caused by the "lack of water resources and the pollution of river cages." He also pointed out that the farmers have resorted to the importation of feed through informal roads and outside the supervision of the veterinary authorities.
Agriculture Ministry official Jaafar Yassin told Arab Sky News that all the energies had been mobilized to stop the deaths of the fish "to no avail", pointing out that it was "out of control".
But water resources expert Adel Mukhtar explained that the low water level was the main cause of the environmental disaster that hit Iraq's fish wealth.
"Almost a year ago, we warned that a drop in water levels would affect fish farming, where fish farms consume 350 million cubic meters of water, so the decline in the level of the rivers has contaminated them," he told Sky News.
He pointed out that the fish culture in river cages was available due to the rapid flow of water in the two rivers, but after the low water level and slow flow, it became difficult to continue this type of activity.
He added that increasing the amount of fodder given to fish contributed to the accumulation of waste in water and fish poisoning.
These developments come weeks after the outbreak of poisoning in the province of Basra to the south because of water pollution, prompting the people there to protest, demanding the government quickly address the issue, especially after Iran diverted the course of the Karon River from its main outlet.
