diwaniyah iraq with its neighbours activating new dams iraqs historic twin rivers could run dry unless new infrastructure projects and tense talks with turkey and iran bear fruitnowhere is the effect on the country more palpable than in basra iraqs only coastal provincehere the tigris and euphrates on which millions of iraqis rely to farm meet at the shatt alarab waterway before spilling into the gulfbut with flows already heavily weakened seawater is pushing back into the freshwater rivers strangling wildlife and human settlements that have survived on these banks for millenniasalinity has gone up in recent years and its killing the farmlands said abu shaker a 70yearold who has spent decades growing iraqs famed date palmsnow with such little fresh water abu shaker and fellow farmers have left their ancient palms withering on cracked and salty earth moving north in search of potable waterbefore we could sell our dates in the gulf and as far as the united states he saidnow you can see with your own eyes this whole river diediraqs water woes arent new but with increasing regional desertification and population growth turkey and iran are keener than ever to keep precious water resources for themselvestheir new dams on the tigris and euphrates and the tributaries that feed them have reduced water flows into iraq by half said baghdads water minister mehdi alhamdanibut he remains hopeful with plans in the works to improve access across the country and guarantee drinking water to all even in a worstcase scenariohamdani who headed iraqs dams directorate before becoming minister said there were plans to build a large reservoir in makhoul north of baghdadit would allow us to store more water generate electricity and protect baghdad in case of floods he saidit would be one of the biggest infrastructure projects in iraq since 2003 when a usled force toppled dictator saddam hussein and unleashed years of conflictsince then government plans to rehabilitate dilapidated power grids water networks and roads have been regularly derailed by warfare most recently the yearslong fight against the islamic state group which iraq declared defeated in late 2017a health crisis sparked by a shortage of safe drinking water hospitalised some 100000 people in basra in 2018this year an unprecedented fiscal crunch caused by low oil prices forced the government to suspend infrastructure investmentsbut new dams alone wont save iraqs waterways experts warnsustainable access they say will only be secured through watersharing deals with ankara and tehrantalks with turkey which have focused on the enormous ilisu dam on the tigris were suspended for two years but resumed in may when iraqs new cabinet came into powerhamdani vowed that an ongoing air and ground assault by ankara on kurdish militants in northern iraq would not derail the positive talks which included a deal to regulate filling the ilisuiran to the east has also activated dams causing flows to the dukan and darbandikhan reservoirs in iraqi kurdistan to drop from 45 cubic meters per second to seven