The Parliamentary Agriculture Committee called on the Iraqi government to take urgent action to confront the water scarcity crisis affecting the central and southern governorates, especially Basra Governorate, warning of serious environmental and economic repercussions threatening the region. The head of the committee, MP Faleh Al-Khazali, confirmed in a conference inside Parliament, followed by Al-Raya, that “the rate of water reaching the marshes reached “zero percent,” in an indicator he described as “extremely dangerous,” pointing out that the southern governorates bear the brunt of the water crisis, amid a slowdown in government treatments. The committee called for obliging the Ministry of Oil to finance and provide fuel for the water pumps on which peasants and farmers in the south depend, calling for major support for the Ministry of Water Resources to fill the encroached lakes that had been taken over by “some influential people,” as it described it. The committee also revealed the near completion of plans to address the salt tongue, which deepened the tragedy of Basra in the summer. The committee criticized the absence of the Governor of Basra from attending Parliament to discuss the crisis, noting that “he was supposed to attend, but he did not.” It held the Turkish side a large part of the responsibility for the water crisis in Iraq, calling on the government to activate international agreements and exert diplomatic pressure to preserve Iraq's water rights.