Professor Dr. Shokor Mahmood Hassan Al-Mohammadi

Department of Soil Sciences and Water Resources

 Introduction

Water and its availability in Iraq are a concern of many researchers, analysts and planners all over the world. Despite the importance of providing the necessary quantities of water for civil, industrial and agricultural uses, the quality of water began to deteriorate as a result of salinization and pollution in all its forms.

Therefore, some researchers expect that the future of water in many countries of the world will face a number of difficulties due to political, economic and environmental constraints. However, this will open the door wide for the discovery and development of modern and economical technologies that help rationalize water use and provide water of the appropriate quality. The scarcity of water resources will also lead to attention and even focus on the optimal management of water projects for civil, industrial and agricultural purposes.

The role of water in Iraqi agriculture

Agriculture played a key role in the settlement of human societies and the prosperity of their civilizations, and this was reflected in the civilizations of Mesopotamia, which are the first civilizations known to mankind. The inhabitants of Mesopotamia had a degree of urbanization and sophistication in the use of irrigation systems, storage of irrigation water during floods and the construction of dams and regulators for water drainage according to the needs of agriculture.

Although the water policy in Iraq has been based on the principle of linking the policy of water use to the policy of land and food security, there are still many obstacles that face the good use of water in irrigated agriculture, resulting from the difficulty of proper planning for this resource because of the risks it is exposed to represented by the following:

1.    The Turkish water policy, which is trying to dominate the large number of imports of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, within its storage and irrigation projects.

2.    The use of traditional irrigation methods and methods that are characterized by their low efficiency and which are still prevalent in irrigated agriculture in Iraq, including surface irrigation, which is characterized by the following negatives: