Iraq to restore water flow after Najaf regulator dispute

Shafaq News- Najaf

Iraq's Ministry of Water Resources agreed to restore normal operations at the Al-Yaou water regulator within 48 hours and release additional water from the Haditha Dam after the closure sparked concerns over water shortages in southern Iraq.

Dhi Qar MP Hassan al-Asadi told Shafaq News the agreement followed talks with the water resources minister and senior ministry officials, adding that the ministry had pledged to return conditions to normal within two days and assigned the head of its National Water Resources Center to oversee the issue.

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Earlier today, Dhi Qar provincial council member Abdul Baqi al-Omari warned that closing the regulator in Najaf could worsen water shortages, damage agriculture, and threaten the southern marshlands during the peak summer season. Speaking to Shafaq News, he urged authorities to reverse the decision, saying the regulator had remained operational for more than 13 years.

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Water regulators are among Iraq's most important structures for controlling water, a concern made sharper by scarcity, particularly in summer. As part of the country's irrigation network, regulators are built on irrigation canals, at their heads, at various points along their course, or at the upstream face of barrages on rivers, their tributaries, and their branches. The regulator operates according to the required water quantities and distributes them to secondary canals based on the needs of the irrigation projects it serves.

The Al-Yaou distributes water shares among the provinces of Al-Diwaniyah, Dhi Qar, and Saladin.