More than 40 villages south of Bahraz in Iraq's Diyala province are facing acute water shortages, with residents turning to groundwater wells as falling river flows fail to meet daily needs, local media reported on August 3, citing Diyala Provincial Council member Nizar Al-Luhaibi.

The shortages in the mainly agricultural province northeast of Baghdad point to the uneven recovery of a region that has swung between flood and drought for years, and where cross-border water flows from Iran remain the decisive factor in whether farmland survives each irrigation season. Diyala has seen some improvement in water availability in recent months, including the revival of Mandali's orchards for the first time in 25 years after a cross-border water release, though warming temperatures have continued to complicate reconstruction.

Al-Luhaibi said the crisis had been driven by prolonged drought and by encroachments on the rivers and canals supplying the area, which stretches from Nadhim Al-Sudour to Bahraz. Water reaches the centre of Bahraz town but does not extend to villages further south, he said, leaving many communities without adequate supplies. Residents have grown heavily dependent on wells for household use, while limited water releases continue to affect surrounding farmland.

Diyala sits at the sharp end of a wider Iraqi water emergency that Baghdad blames largely on upstream dam-building in Iran and Turkey. The Sirwan river, which feeds the province after crossing from Iran, has been curtailed by Iranian dam and diversion projects, cutting flows into Lake Hamrin, the main irrigation reservoir for the province, which has repeatedly fallen close to empty.

Sediment dislodged by earlier water releases from the Diyala river also triggered a Tigris pollution episode that spread downstream to Iraq's southern provinces before authorities contained it. Iraq has described its position as one of the worst water crises in decades, with national reserves at their lowest in around 80 years after successive poor rainy seasons.

Al-Luhaibi said provincial authorities had reached an agreement with the Ministry of Water Resources to dredge the Khrisan river, a project intended to improve flow and restore supplies to affected villages and farmland during the next irrigation season.

He urged authorities to expedite the work before the season begins, warning that delays would deepen the effect of drought on communities and agriculture.

Earlier in 2025 the Diyala Provincial Council had signalled it would open talks with Iran and the Kurdistan Region to raise discharges and rebuild reserves, part of a series of local efforts to secure water as bilateral agreements with upstream neighbours have gone largely unenforced.