Fifteen Diyala villages say they may leave, in the year the water came back

DIYALA — Villages in the Bazayiz area of Bahriz say they may have to abandon their homes because water is not reaching them, in a year when Iraq’s national storage recovered from 5 billion cubic meters at the end of 2025 to about 34 billion by July.

“We are about 15 villages severely affected by water scarcity, and in winter we receive only one or two allocations, which are insufficient for our needs and our livestock, including sheep, cattle and others,” said Ali Hassoun Alwan of al-Jeel al-Thani village. “Our crops are gone, our livestock are gone, our children have developed skin diseases, and our rivers have dried up. Frankly, we are exhausted. Either the local government finds us a solution, or we will be forced to migrate because of the drought.”

Alwan put his village at about 300 people, with Khalil Hussein and Khamis al-Hassan at about 1,000 each and other villages nearby in the same position. Residents want supplies restored and the channel feeding the area dredged and cleared of obstructions and illegal encroachments.

The problem is the delivery system, according to Majid Radwan, who heads the Baqubah division at the Water Resources Department. Irrigation projects No. 1 and No. 2 sit at the tail end of the Khuraisan-Sariya system, fed by a canal that “extends for 60 kilometers, coming from Muqdadiyah district and passing through Baqubah district and the subdistricts of Kanaan and Bahriz,” he said. “It is an earthen canal, and its irrigation system is old and requires continuous cleaning and dredging, particularly in its upstream sections.” Villages at the far end depend on pumping stations that need maintenance and run on an electricity supply that fluctuates.

The department is clearing culverts, removing obstructions and monitoring illegal water use with the equipment it has, Radwan said.