On (10/11/2022), the House of Representatives held its tenth session of the second legislative term of the first legislative year of the fifth electoral cycle under the chairmanship of Mohammed Al-Halbousi in the presence of (212) representative and the session included:

  -Mr. Taher Sabih Hashem takes the oath of the office to fill the membership of the House.

- Speker Al-Halbousi welcomed during the session the presence of the Minister of Water Resources and the Minister of Agriculture in the House of Representatives according to a House request to discuss the plans of the two ministries to handle the water scarcity and the agricultural plan and the challenges facing their work.

- Mr. Aoun Diab Abdullah, Minister of Water Resources, assure the assiduous of the Ministry to work responsibly and take measures to form an operations room to develop plans and distribute tasks In the form of sectors and make efforts to deliver water according to fair management to the most far areas despite the difficulty of the current season and provide the necessary quantities to the beneficiaries, especially that the volume of water entering Iraq has decreased significantly compared to previous years, indicating that what enters the dams is much less than the amounts of water released by much, which requires follow-up of the plans developed For water to reach the most far areas of Iraq.

- The Minister noted to make efforts to face the challenges that opposes the Ministry's plans and prevent the excesses that occur to meet the required need of citizens, pointing to the deprivation of Diyala Governorate, for example, from agriculture last year due to water scarcity, demanding the need to intensify the efforts of the House of Representatives and local governments to implement the ministry's plan and overcome the water crisis and move quickly to approach the State of Turkey to follow up the file of launching the agreed quantities, indicating that Turkey has not committed to the agreement for more than a year, However, he said that the amount of water entering the Euphrates River amounted to 198 cubic meters per second, while It was previously 290 cubic meters per second, and from the side of the Tigris River, the quantities of water entering reached 200 cubic meters per second, while the exit from the reservoir of dams Is 500 cubic meters per second, noting their move to address the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Parliamentary Foreign Relations Committee to demand that Turkey release Iraq's need for water.

-Mr. Abbas Al-Alawi, Minister of Agriculture, gave a detailed explanation of the challenges facing the agricultural sector in Iraq as a result of the lack of water and the problem of fertilizers, pointing out that the Ministry has developed an emergency agricultural plan for the year 2022 and 2023 in coordination with the General Secretariat of the House of Ministers and the identification of areas of one and a half million dunams for irrigated agriculture and one million and 100 thousand dunams for the cultivation of orchards while agriculture was compensated by relying on wells across an area of 4 million dunams, explaining that the agricultural sector has been subjected to a significant decrease in the level by 70%.

- Mr. Al-Olayawi mentioned that the Ministry of Agriculture contracted with the Ministry of Industry to provide fertilizer after the formation of a tripartite committee to consider the results of the validity of fertilizer, as well as coordination with government agencies to ensure the access of water to the southern regions, calling on the House of Representatives to support the file of agriculture by providing allocations in the general budget to rise to the level of challenges, In addition to demanding support for the provision of modern technologies for agricultural operations and providing government support for seeds by 70% and fertilizers by 50% .

- The Speaker of the House of Representatives pointed out that agricultural areas have witnessed a significant decrease in Iraq, stressing the need to exert political, parliamentary and governmental efforts to remedy the water crisis and handle the country's needs of agriculture, electricity production and the provision of the citizen's need for water.

- The interventions of the Ladies and Gentlemen of the house of  the representative focused on demand for a diplomatic orientation and pressure on the upstream countries to release Iraq's need for water, reviewing the agreements concluded with neighboring countries related to the sharing of water quotas, especially those that have been going on for decades, Increasing the percentage of distribution of fertilizers and seeds to farmers, committing to distribute them in time, protecting local production of eggs and chickens, supporting livestock breeders by providing them with seeds intended for the cultivation of fodder plants to reduce dependence on the importer and increase the shares of marshes of water, In addition to the Inclusion of (guaranteed) areas with seeds and fertilizers, and the  demand to support  Nineveh governorate with pivotal sprinklers, allowing the drilling of artesian wells and activating the Island water project, and calling for the inclusion of the farmers of the Kurdistan region in the agricultural plan for the current year and equipping them with seeds and fertilizers, as well as demanding work on the establishment of advanced projects such as lining irrigation canals to reduce evaporation, reconsidering the project of the water of Badah being useless for Basra governorate and working to combat the Nile flower that affects the water stream, the establishment of new dams and the completion of the Bakhma Dam Northern Erbil and adoption of modern irrigation methods.

Dr. Shakhwan Abdullah, Vice-Chairman of the House, chaired part of the session.

-Ladies and gentlemen representatives demand to increase the agricultural share of Maysan and Wasit governorates, provide the water share for the districts and areas of Dhi Qar governorate and agricultural areas in Kirkuk governorate cancel agricultural contracts that are more than a year old and have not Invested the land, activate the agricultural initiative, and demand the Ministry of Water Resources to know Its procedures if it has future plans to face water scarcity and desertification as mentioned in international reports and call for a quick plan to save the remaining palm trees.

-Speaker Al-Halbousi directed the House economic and investment committees to approach the Department of Industrial Development in the Ministry of Industry to inquire about the production of dab fertilizer or not.

-Dr. Shakhwan Abdullah assure the importance of finding radical solutions to the water problem and the exceeded share of Iraq and its access to Its water entitlements, inquiring about the value of the amounts allocated to the ministries of agriculture and water resources and the percentage of amount paid to two ministries.

-The Minister of Water Resources pointed to proceed in a serious way to reach agreements with the countries of Iran and Turkey to increase water releases for the benefit of Iraq and develop a plan to secure water in the marshes areas, especially that they need 5 billion cubic meters per year In the normal situation, and the ministry directs to know the fact that there are quantities of groundwater in the ground, as well as his mention to the existence of the lakes and dams water evaporation problem by 8 billion cubic meters per year, pointing out that the ministry pays attention to changing Irrigation  methods to modern methods , He explained that the amount spent from the ministry's share within the allocations of the Food Security Law amounted to 45 billion out of 100 billion

-The Minister of Agriculture considered the problem of vast oil lands in the Basra , Dhi Qar and Maysan governorates a dilemma that limits agricultural areas, pointing to coordination with the Ministry of Oil to solve it through sighing contracts, indicating the start of the agricultural plan by processing agricultural inputs for farmers and activating the agricultural initiative through the formation of a young team from the ministry and addressing previous failures and the inclusion of veterinarians in the budget for 2023 for designation purposes, pointing out that the ministry Is working to get rid of the debts accumulated on it to start developing the agricultural sector, indicating that the ministry received 50 percent of its allocations in the Food Security Law . 

-Then it was decided to adjourn the session.