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NAJAF: Farmer Hadi Saheb cannot wait to see his wheat fields flourish in the heart of the desert after he tapped into groundwater reserves in water-starved Iraq.
He is just one of many Iraqis who have turned to drilling wells in the desert to help sustain the country’s agriculture.
It is a risky move that threatens to deplete the groundwater in a nation already battered by frequent drought and scarce rainfall.
Although Iraq’s fertile plains traditionally stretch along the once-mighty Tigris and Euphrates — the two rivers whose levels have plummeted — Saheb’s vast lands lie in the heart of the southern Najaf desert.
“Year after year the drought worsens, and the desertification intensifies,” said the 46-year-old, dressed in a white abaya as a duststorm swept through the area.
So he has turned to groundwater, taking advantage of a government initiative.
This leases desert land to farmers at a symbolic price of one dollar per dunum (0.25 hectares in Iraq’s measurement), provides subsidised irrigation systems, and buys their harvest at a preferential rate.
Now that he doesn’t have to rely solely on rainfall, Saheb said he cultivates 20 times more land than before, and his harvest has increased to 250 tons.
“It would be impossible to continue without groundwater, which we cannot extract without drilling wells,” he said.
Like many other farmers, Saheb has upgraded his irrigation techniques.


He now relies on a center-pivot method involving equipment rotating in a circle to water crops through sprinklers.
This uses at least 50 percent less water than flooding — the vastly more wasteful traditional way used for millennia, during which the land is submerged.
According to the agriculture ministry, Iraq cultivated 3.1 million dunums (775,000 hectares) this winter using groundwater and modern irrigation systems, while the rivers watered only two million dunums.
In Najaf, desert farming has expanded significantly.
According to Moneim Shahid from Najaf’s agriculture authorities, crop yields have been boosted by new irrigation methods, tougher seeds and fertilizers suitable for arid soils.
Shahid said he expects a harvest in Najaf this year of at least 1.7 tons of wheat per dunum in the desert, compared with 1.3 tons in areas irrigated by rivers.
Last year Iraq had a very good harvest, exceeding self-sufficiency with a production of 6.4 million tons of wheat, according to agriculture ministry figures.
Religious institutions such as the Imam Hussein Shrine in the holy city of Karbala back the authorities and also support desert farming.
Qahtan Awaz from the shrine’s agriculture department said the institution, which employs families to farm desert areas, is cultivating 1,000 hectares and aims to more than triple that amount.
Today, groundwater reservoirs help mitigate agricultural losses caused by drought, an already frequent phenomenon in Iraq that is worsened by a warming planet.
But preserving those resources is proving to be a challenge.
Shahid from Najaf’s agriculture authorities, said “we should be vigilant” in protecting groundwater, calling it “a strategic reserve for future generations.”
Its use “should be rationed ... and sprinklers could help regulate consumption,” he said.


The Najaf desert lies above the Umm el-Radhuma and the Dammam aquifers, which Iraq shares with neighboring Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.
Water levels in both aquifers have declined, according to the United Nations which has also voiced caution that aquifers worldwide are depleting faster than they can be replenished naturally.
A 2023 UN report warned that Saudi Arabia used much of its groundwater to grow wheat in the desert, depleting more than 80 percent of its resources and forcing authorities to stop cultivating wheat after 2016.
Sameh Al-Muqdadi, a water politics and climate security expert, warned that Iraq’s groundwater levels have already dropped.
Water used to be found 50 or 100 meters deep (165-330 feet), but today wells are dug 300 meters deep, he said.
“People believe that these resources will stay forever... which is not true,” Muqdadi warned.
Authorities have no estimates for Iraq’s groundwater, and the most recent figures date back to the 1970s, he said.
“If you don’t have any estimation, you cannot manage your resources.”
“Groundwater is a contingency measure, and it should be used only in urgent cases” such as droughts “to sustain food security only,” not to expand farmland for commercial purposes, Muqdadi said.
But unfortunately, “this is what we have nowadays.”

With the world’s attention focused on Gaza, Israeli military operations in the West Bank grew in size, frequency and intensity. The army launched the stepped-up campaign to counter what it says is a growing militant threat.
Here’s a look at where things stand, with data collected by the UN’s humanitarian office and Peace Now, an Israeli anti-settlement tracking group.
Palestinian deaths by Israeli fire have surged
Since the war in Gaza erupted, the majority of Palestinians killed by Israeli fire in the West Bank have been shot during military raids in villages and towns.
Israel says the operations are needed to stamp out militancy. Many of the dead were militants killed in clashes, or youths throwing stones or firebombs.
But Palestinians and rights groups say scores of uninvolved civilians have been caught in the crossfire. 
Israeli offensives evicted 40,000 from refugee camps
Israel is staging a massive offensive across four major refugee camps in the north of the West Bank. The raids, at their height, pushed 40,000 people from their homes. Many are now sheltering with relatives in neighboring villages, others racking up debt renting apartments while they wait to return.
Israeli officials, meanwhile, have said those displaced will not be allowed to go back for at least a year.
Forces have ripped up roads, destroyed infrastructure and demolished hundreds of homes. Israel says it is dismantling terrorist infrastructure. But civilian homes have also been destroyed.
In another escalation, the military has resumed previously rare tactics, like drone strikes, in these densely populated areas.
Settler attacks on Palestinians occur almost daily.

For Palestinians living in small Bedouin villages in areas under full Israeli control, the attacks have become a near-daily occurrence as settlers — emboldened by Israel’s pro-settler government— build new unauthorized outposts on nearby hilltops.
Israel says it opposes settler violence and blames it all on a small, extremist fringe. Palestinians say that the Israeli army does little to protect them, and that the attacks are part of a systematic attempt to expel them from their land.
Israeli outposts spring up across territory
Settlers have established about 80 new outposts since the war began. Rights groups say the outposts, often populated by extremist activists, are the main drivers of violence against Palestinians. The tiny unauthorized land grabs are tolerated and even encouraged by Israel, which over the years has converted many outposts into authorized settlements as it cements its hold on the territory and moves to prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state.
Israel’s government, dominated by settler leaders and supporters, has established 13 new settlements since the war began, at least five of which originally sprung up as outposts. That brings the total number of settlements to 140.
Most of the international community considers settlements illegal, though US President Donald Trump has supported them.
Checkpoints choke Palestinian movement
Meanwhile, movement between Palestinian towns and cities has only grown more difficult. New checkpoints have further divided the territory and created choke points the Israeli army can shut off on a whim.
Crossings that had been open 24/7 started closing during morning and evening rush hours, disrupting the lives of hundreds of thousands of people and turning once-routine commutes into hours-long journeys.
As the war in Gaza continues and the West Bank seethes, Palestinians say life is only growing more difficult.