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| (AFP) |
On August 20 the Iraqi parliament’s agriculture and water committee announced that levels at Iraq’s water storage facilities had reached a “dead” level. It blamed the government for failing to get neighboring countries to cooperate on the issue.
A few days before the Water Minister claimed the exact opposite. It said that talks with Turkey had led to more water flowing down Iraq’s rivers and that along with good management of water storage Iraq would make it through the third year of drought and meet requirements for all projects.
Baghdad has a bad record of exaggerating and covering up the truth. That’s especially true for issues like water which the ruling parties have no real interest in because it doesn’t benefit them. That’s what leads to false claims like Iraq had enough water this year.
Parliament, the United Nations and other organizations have gone into overdrive warning of the impending disaster Iraq is facing. The UN Development Programme for instance stated that Iraq is losing 400,000 donums of farmland each year and is ranked the 5th most vulnerable country to climate change. Temperatures in Iraq have increased 2-7 times faster than in other countries resulting in 2020 and 2021 being the driest seasons in 40 years. The nations’ main source of water is the Tigris and Euphrates and the water flow on those has decreased 29% and 73% respectively. Every month there are similar reports. The elite remains unmoved however and just makes more empty promises as the country heads towards an environmental catastrophe.
SOURCES
Al Rafidain, “Parliamentary Agriculture Committee: We Have Reached “Dead” Water Reserves Due To Government Negligence,” 8/20/23
Rasul, Azhi, “Improvement in water flow to Iraq after bilateral talks with Turkey: Minister,” Rudaw, 8/14/23
Rudaw, “Climate change costs Iraq 400,000 dunums of agricultural land annually: UN,” 8/14/23
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