Ministry of Water Resources issues an explanatory statement

Ina- Baghdad

The Ministry of Water Resources issued on Wednesday an explanatory statement about the Abu Al-Feleen landfill inside Al-Huweiza Marsh… The statement reads as follows: “Al-Feleen is a landfill road implemented inside Al-Huweiza Marsh during the Iraq- Iran war; it is not a regular, orderly dam. On arrival of large amounts of water from the Iranian side (more than 200 m 3 per second)’ the said road couldn’t face that water pressure. Great efforts have been made by the Ministry to support that road; to delay the drowning of areas planted with wheat and barley within the marshes until harvest time; but the water amount exceeded the road’s ability to thwart. The estimated area that will be flooded is about 750.3 ha. planted inside the marsh. The Ministry took measures to lower the amount of water flowing from the main tributaries into Huweiza Marsh (namely- Al-Msharah and Al-Kahla’a’ rivers) to the lowest possible amount, along with opening Al-Kassar Drainage line to reduce water pressure. But the amount of water from Al-Karkheh River (on the Iranian side) was too much to control the flow along these roads; that were not designed as dams in the first place”.