Water pumping delayed in Samawah after transmission line fault

MUTHANNA — The Muthanna Water Directorate said Thursday that water pumping to neighborhoods across Samawah had been delayed after an emergency fault in one of the city’s water transmission lines.

The directorate apologized to residents, said technical crews were working to repair the fault and restore pumping, and urged people to conserve water during the maintenance period. It did not say how long repairs would take or which areas were worst affected.

Samawah, the capital of Muthanna, depends on a network of transmission pipelines and pumping stations to distribute treated water across the city, and a break in a transmission line can cut delivery to multiple neighborhoods until repairs are finished.

Water supply has been a recurring problem in parts of Muthanna. In April 2025, residents of villages west of Samawah blocked a main road to protest the lack of potable water and other basic services, saying they had been forced to rely on saline river water. “These people standing here are doing so for the simplest, most basic things, water, electricity, and a paved road,” said Hadi Farhan, a local resident, speaking to 964media.