Basra Governorate
After the completion of the dam's construction in early spring 2018, the Iraqi government approached the Turkish authorities to postpone filling of the proposed Ilısu reservoir until the end of June in the same year, due to the fact that the Tigris river has its highest levels during spring time. However, water shortages were witnessed in the Mosul dam, where water in the reservoir had more than 3 billion cubic meters compared with its levels of more than 8 billion cubic meters in the same period of the previous year. Moreover, the southern governorates of Iraq had the lowest portions of the river in years, in which the total Tigris water share in Iraq fell from 21 billion cubic metres to only 9.7 billion cubic metres instead. Such impacts which might lead to the drainage of the Mesopotamian Marshes and destruction of its ecology system, were part of the reasons to the emergence of a new wave of Iraqi protests, along with several other issues, especially in Basra Governorate.