The first iron pond for fish farming has been set up in Khanaqin district of Diyala province, after the government shut off electricity to dozens of clay ponds, accusing them of wasting groundwater and electricity.
The pond was installed by Hussein Qahtan, who has been raising fish since 2014, but this year he changed his working method from clay to iron, based on the guidelines of the Iraqi Ministry of Water Resources in order to protect groundwater and not waste water.
"Committees kept coming and shutting off the electricity to the ponds, causing the fish to die. I decided to turn it into an iron pond,” Qahtan said.
"The guidelines of the Ministry of Agriculture emphasize that the water does not go underground in the iron and plastic ponds, which means that less water is needed," he added.
"Both my iron pools cost a lot of money. If I had known it would cost so much money, I wouldn't have done it," Qahtan said.
He bought two generators for each fish pond at a cost of 30 million Iraqi dinars IQD (USD20,000), and spent another 30 million dinars to build the two iron ponds. "The generators need 300 liters of diesel for a week," he said.
In all, he put 5,000 carp fish into both ponds, more than the average raised in the clay ponds.
“Because of the high cost of fish ponds, my friends are not willing to build iron or plastic ponds as a substitute for clay ponds,” Qahtan said.
"Fish grow more in iron and plastic ponds, especially in winter, but in clay ponds in November, December and January they do not grow and do not feed well because of the cold," Qahtan said
The local authorities said they act per instructions of the ministry in Baghdad.
"We have launched a campaign to cut off the electricity to the fish ponds, which is the decision of the Iraqi Ministry of Electricity, and the Ministry of Water Resources will destroy all the illegal mud ponds," Jawad Faizullah, mayor of Khanaqin, told KirkukNow.
“Anyone who has an official water well, provided it is for irrigation of agriculture, not fish ponds, has no problem and can do agriculture, but not for fish farming because we use it for times of trouble and drought, not for fish farming.”
According to the statistics of the mayor office, there are 80 fish ponds in Khanaqin district that are mud and illegally built. The government has directed to demolish all of them.
"The decision of the Iraqi Ministry of Agriculture is that anyone who wants to raise fish must use iron or plastic ponds, in order to reduce the waste of groundwater," the mayor added.
In 2022, the local administration of northern, oil-rich, multi-ethnic province of Kirkuk said it was addressed to remove thousands of fish farming ponds, most of which were located in Daquq district in the south of the province, following a decision of the Iraqi government, due to water scarcity and lack of official license.
According to the investigations of (KirkukNow), in the district of Daquq (44 km south of the city of Kirkuk), there were approximately 3,000 fish ponds, which represent the source of livelihood for thousands of families, but the statistics of the Water Resources Department in Daquq indicate that only seven of them are officially licensed.
