Infrastructure under pressure: Water management and state-making in southern Iraq

•There are major water supply and governance problems in Basra, southern Iraq.•Key water treatment plants supplying Basra are under-staffed and under-resourced.•The water treatment system for Basra city is critically dependent on a single canal.•Water infrastructure reflects, and reproduces, a clientelist political system.•Water supply deficits are compounded by growing hydro-climatic variability.