Rising water salinity hits farms and livestock in southern Iraq
Soaring salt levels in Basra’s waterways threaten agriculture, displace families, and intensify the climate-driven water crisis
BASRA, Iraq (MNTV) — Farmers and herders in southern Iraq are struggling to survive as record-high salinity levels contaminate water sources, devastate crops, and kill livestock, deepening the region’s climate-induced crisis.
Local farmer Umm Ali from Basra’s Al-Mashab marshes said her poultry and ducks have died after the river water turned too brackish to use. “We used to drink and cook with river water, but now it’s harming us,” she said, talking to a local TV channel.
Officials say Iraq’s worsening drought and reduced freshwater inflows have driven salt and pollution concentrations to historic highs, especially where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers meet before flowing into the Gulf.
“We haven’t seen such high salinity levels in 89 years,” said Water Ministry spokesman Khaled Shamal.
According to ministry data, salinity in central Basra reached 29,000 parts per million (ppm) last month—up from just 2,600 ppm a year earlier. For comparison, freshwater should contain less than 1,000 ppm, while seawater averages around 35,000 ppm, the US Geological Survey reports.
Environmental expert Hasan Al-Khateeb from the University of Kufa warned that the Shatt Al-Arab waterway, now loaded with industrial and agricultural pollutants, has dropped so low that seawater is encroaching inland, worsening the contamination.
The crisis is crippling rural livelihoods. Farmer Zulaykha Hashem said she has delayed irrigating her pomegranate and fig trees, waiting for conditions to improve. “We cannot even leave. Where would we go?” she asked, reflecting the despair of many families dependent on farming.
The UN’s International Organization for Migration has warned that rising salinity and drought have already displaced around 170,000 people in central and southern Iraq. Palm groves, citrus farms, and other crops continue to vanish under the strain of soil degradation and water scarcity.
In Basra’s parched outskirts, buffalo herder Maryam Salman said several of her animals died due to lack of fresh water. “Water is not available, neither in summer nor winter,” she said, standing near the skeletons of her livestock.
Meanwhile, fishermen like Hamdiyah Mehdi’s husband return home empty-handed more often, as fish stocks dwindle in the increasingly salty Shatt Al-Arab. “The water is murky and salty,” she said. “It’s affecting our income, our health, and even our peace at home.”
Authorities say Iraq now receives less than 35 percent of its allotted flow from the Tigris and Euphrates, blaming upstream dams in Turkiye. The government has launched a major desalination project in Basra with a daily capacity of one million cubic meters to combat the crisis.
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