June 8, 2008

Residents in Jasan an agricultural town in Wasit close to Iran demonstrated to protest the lack of drinking and irrigation water in the district. Most of the residents are considering leaving the district according to one demonstrator. Another demonstrator complained that hundreds of dunums of land were idle and going to waste because they had not been irrigated for a long time.

The demonstrators want the following:

* An investigation to held as to why the water stopped in the district.
* The Governorate’s director of water resources to be dismissed.
* Removing all illegal feeds from the district water project.
* The project to be connected to an emergency power line.

Context:

Jasan is about 60 Km east of Kut. It gets water from al-Diboni (50 Km east of Kut) that passes through the farmland and feeds the district’s water installation.

Local reports say that the al-Galal river which comes from Iran stopped running through the Iraqi territories, because the Iranians have both dammed and diverted it and that this has exacerbated the water crisis in Jasan.

We expect there to be many such reports as the drought in Irak becomes more severe and the resulting humanitarian catasrophe in the south unfolds.

ends