Iraq ministry files lawsuit against Iran over water shortages

Iraq has completed procedures to sue Iran at the International Court of Justice over Tehran's water policy, an Iraqi official said on Saturday.

Officials in Baghdad have accused Tehran of reducing water flows from the Tigris and Euphrates.

"The ministry of water resources has submitted a letter to the foreign ministry and the cabinet, and completed all technical and legal procedures for the lawsuit," Iraqi Minister of Water Resources Mahdi Rashid al-Hamdani said in an interview with US-funded Al-Hurra TV.

"The decision to take matters further is now up to the foreign ministry and the Iraqi government," Hamdani added.

The oil-rich nation of 40 million has been facing an economic, security, and health crises, compounded by increasingly severe droughts and low rainfall.

The building of dams in upstream Iran and Turkey has further limited the flow of the Tigris and Euphrates into Iraq over the years.

Last week, Iraq’s water ministry issued a warning that the Tigris and Euphrates rivers could dry up by 2040 due to declining water levels and climate change.

"The rate of decline in water imports to Iraq has begun gradually and will decrease to 30 percent by 2035," the ministry of water said.

Parts of Iran are also suffering from a water crisis, which led to protests met with deadly repression by Iranian security forces.