Iraq’s second-largest lake dries up, revealing dead fish

One of the largest lakes in Iraq, the man-made Razzaza is experiencing a significant drop in water levels and has been affected by pollution and high levels of salinity.

“During the 1980s and 1990s Lake Razzaza was a source of livelihood, there were fish including yellowfin barbel, binni and carp because the water (level) was good,” says fisherman Saleh Abboud. “But now it’s dried up.”

Lake Razzaza is the latest victim of a water crisis in Iraq, known as the “Land between the two rivers”, the Tigris and the Euphrates. Upstream dams in Turkey, Syria and Iran have shrunk rivers and their tributaries, seasonal rainfall has dropped and infrastructure has crumbled.

Hundreds of families relied on the Razzaza fishery for their livelihood. Now the number of dead fish that show up is greater than the number of live fish they can catch.

An Iraqi fisherman collects dead fish near Lake Razzaza, also known as Lake Milh, in Arabic for salt, in Iraq’s Karbala governorate, Feb. 14, 2022. (AP)

Razzaza Lake, also known as Milh Lake, means Salt Lake in Arabic, is located between the Iraqi governorates of Anbar and Karbala. It is the second largest lake in Iraq and is part of a wide valley that includes the lakes of Habbaniyah, Tharthar and Bahr al-Najaf.

The lake was built as a measure to control flooding in the Euphrates and to be used as a huge reservoir for irrigation purposes. Iraqis and tourists frequented the lake as a place of recreation to cool off during the hot Iraqi summers.

Not anymore, the lake shrinking every year.

In recent years, it has been affected not only by water scarcity, but also by drought, neglect, and increased evaporation during Iraq’s hot summers. It has also been affected by pollution due to the diversion of sewage into the lake and the theft of water quotas allocated to it.

“The lake cannot be used for the purpose of water resources exploitation because we do not have sufficient quantities of water to supply Lake Razzaza,” said Aoun Diab Abdullah, an adviser at the Ministry of Water Resources.