Recent rains ease Basra’s water crisis as salinity levels drop, officials say

BASRA — Recent rainfall has increased water flows and reduced salinity levels in Basra, offering temporary relief after a period of acute water scarcity, local officials said Wednesday.

Deputy Governor Hassan al-Najjar said the rains had a “positive effect” by increasing water releases, which in turn reduce salinity concentrations in a governorate where saltwater intrusion from the sea into the Shatt al-Arab is a chronic problem. “Lower salinity levels have a positive impact on the environment, people, and agriculture, given that Basra is an agricultural governorate,” he said, expressing hope for continued rainfall to limit saltwater advance.

Al-Najjar said the Euphrates — one of Basra’s two main water sources alongside the Tigris — is carrying very low volumes, compounding the governorate’s vulnerability. He said local desalination plants have been established as a stopgap, but described the fundamental long-term solution as a large-scale seawater desalination project modeled on Gulf country systems, with initial phases underway and completion hoped for within the next budget cycle.

He described last year’s crisis not as water pollution but as outright scarcity, saying the recent rains would help address that shortage in the short term.

The rainfall is part of a broader unstable weather pattern across Iraq this week, driven by a low-pressure system bringing widespread storms and raising river levels across central and northern areas, including the Kurdistan Region, though authorities have warned of localized flooding in some areas.