Thi-Qar peasants want solutions to water scarcity

THI- QAR / IraqiNews.com: The head of the peasantry associations in Thi-Qar on Monday called on the Iraqi government to make more efforts to find practical solutions to the “water problem” in the province. “The Iraqi government should make all possible efforts to provide water supply in summer,” Muqdad al-Yasseri told IraqiNews.com news agency. Yasseri explained that people in the province are totally dependent on agriculture, noting that the province has a vast area of agricultural land, including 800,000 donums (1 donum = 2,500 square meters) of irrigated land. Thi-Qar, 380 km south of Baghdad, has an area of 12,900 square kilometers (4,980.7 sq mi). In 2003 the estimated population of the governorate was 1,454,200 people. Thi-Qar was the second Iraqi province where security responsibilities were transferred from the Multi-National Force (MNF) to the Iraqis. The province’s capital is the city of al-Nassiriya. It also includes the ancient Sumerian ruins of Ur, Eridu, Lagash and Ngirsu. Before 1976 the province was known as al-Muntafiq. SS (P) 1