Increased Displacement In Iraq Due To Climate Change

(IOM)

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) just issued a new report about continued displacement in central and southern Iraq due to climate change. The situation has gotten worse with more families leaving the land and the government appears to be incapable of providing help.

 

IOM conducted a survey from August to October 2022 in 9 provinces. It found 10,560 people left their homes in the first ten months of 2022 due to climate change. That was a 141% increase over the previous year. In total, 55,290 people had left their homes from January 2016 to October 2022 driven by environmental degradation. In total, 1 in 10 people have been displaced in the last 6 years in those areas. Diyala, Babil, Dhi Qar and Wasit have been hit the hardest with ¾ of the displacement in 2022 coming from those four provinces. There are two areas that have been completely abandoned.

 

¾ of the affected areas are suffering from 6-8 serious events at the same time including droughts, sand/dust storms, salinity, soil degradation, and lower rainfall. In the survey, less rain, lower water allocations and broken or inefficient infrastructure was the biggest factor in displacement. Second was families struggling to meet basic food needs because their livelihood is threatened and they can’t make enough money as a result. Almost all the locations reported a drop in crop production, death of their livestock and reduced fishing. Third is lack of access to services and infrastructure. In nearly half the locations in Dhi Qar for instance people said they had little to no access to services. Finally, many families are sending members away to find work and make money because they can’t make any at home. This process or rural to urban migration has been going since nearly the founding of Iraq.

 

This is just the latest warning amongst many that Iraq is suffering a serious environmental crisis. The government has been struggling to respond because it does not serve the public well. So far the Sudani government has asked for international help to get neighboring countries to increase water flow down Iraq’s rivers. The prime minister went to Turkey in March and got Ankara to agree to release more water for just one month, not enough to make any real difference. It has also announced plans to centralize control of water under the Water Ministry which would focus upon storage. Rather than solving problems this policy will likely make it worse as the state has mismanaged water for decades. Most importantly the ruling parties are not interested in actually governing. Their main priorities are robbing the public coffers and ensuring their power. Otherwise they ignore issues such as this until it reaches a tipping point and then are forced to make a bunch of emergency announcements few of which get followed through with. The Iraqi people are largely left to suffer by themselves as a result.

 

SOURCES

 

Bechocha, Julian, “Iraqi PM seeks to regulate water usage following Turkey visit,” Rudaw, 3/22/23

 

International Organization for Migration, “Drivers Of Climate-Induced Displacement In Iraq: Climate Vulnerability Assessment Key Findings, Data Collection Period: August-October 2022,” April 2023

 

Al Mada, “Iraq makes the water file sovereign and tends to store the Turkish increase in releases," 3/28/23

 

Mahmoud, Sinan, “Iraq appeals for urgent international help as water crisis worsens,” The National, 5/6/23