There used to be no need for a well in his village, but a creeping drought is now threatening agriculture and livelihoods in the area.
But his family’s main supply of drinking water comes from six small reservoirs that are refilled at least once a week for around 20,000 dinars ($17 or 13.50 euros).
Abu Ali is determined to stay put, but the drought has already forced dozens of families to flee more than 20 villages in the area.
Weather patterns are largely to blame for the crisis, according to an engineer with Iraq’s ministry of water resources.
“For the second consecutive season, the rains have been poor and temperatures have risen,” Mehdi Rashid told AFP.
– Marshes under threat – But while rain accounts for 30 percent of Iraq’s water resources, the remaining 70 percent is drawn from rivers and marshes shared with Iran, Turkey and Syria, he said.
“Iran has completely re-routed the course of the Karun river,” he said, once a cross-border river and a key water source for Iraqis.
Rashid said Iran had also “built three big dams on the Karaj river”, significantly reducing water levels in cross-border wetlands shared by the two countries.
Of the 45 tributaries once shared by Iran and Iraq, only three or four remain viable, said added.
The Iraqi stretch of the Tigris is downstream from Turkey, leaving it vulnerable to reduced flows.