Sparse rainfall and reduced water flows blamed on climate change, upstream dams and government rationing have created shortages with severe impacts on the marsh ecosystem.

Residents expect the marshes to dry up in summer, hoping for a long-absent good rainy season to revive them.

The current water level in many areas is less than a metre (three feet) deep. Um al-Naaj lake, once teeming with fish, is now just three metres deep, compared with at least six before the drought.

Rowing his boat on the lake, fisherman Kazem Ali, 80, said that while the new project may create some jobs, “we, the average people, will not benefit”.

“All we want is water,” he said.

Rasul al-Ghurabi, a 28-year-old buffalo farmer, said he would never quit “the marshes and the freedom that comes with them” even if the oil company offered him a job.

Protected core

One cool March morning, as he led his buffaloes to the marshes to graze, Ghurabi was surprised to see workers laying cables and drilling holes.

A cable caused one of his animals to stumble, he said.

The marshes contain a core area that serves as a habitat for numerous species, including migratory waterbirds, surrounded by a buffer zone for protection.

Activists have accused authorities of conducting seismic studies within the core, which the state-owned Missan Oil Company denies, saying that the vehicles spotted in the area were carrying out work for a separate field nearby and had since left.

The Huwaizah oilfield was discovered in the 1970s, and Iraq shares it with Iran, which has been extracting oil for a long time.