Iraq continues to face the dire consequences of climate change. Each week new stories appear about environmental degradation.
In mid-August there were several reports about the loss of marshland. On August 13 parliament’s agriculture committee warned of an environmental disaster in the southern marshes due to a lack of water and government neglect. It said negotiations with neighboring countries to release more water down the Euphrates and Tigris were not working.
That was followed by reports of fish dying off. Dhi Qar reported a 60% drop in its fish population in the marshlands due to water shortages. There was a similar situation in Maysan. The provincial council’s media director said that due to drought up to 80% of the marsh area might disappear.
Currently Iraq is in the third year of drought caused by low rainfall and a reduction of volume down the Euphrates and Tigris. Things are predicted to get worse in the coming years.
The shrinking of the marshes and the loss of fisheries will have a direct affect upon rural populations which rely upon them for their livelihoods. People will lose income and jobs. Poverty will increase. Food prices will rise and imports will grow. There will be more migration to cities as people search for employment. All of this is going on with little action taken by the government. That’s because it doesn’t serve the people but rather the elite who are focused upon power and robbing the state.
SOURCES
Kurdistan 24, “Iraq faces severe environmental crisis: livestock and fish populations in peril due to water shortages,” 8/17/24
Al Rafidain, “Maysan Governorate Council: The drought in the marshes is frightening … We lost 80 percent of its area,” 8/20/24
- “A parliamentary warning of an environmental catastrophe threatening the marshes in Iraq and exposing fish wealth to destruction,” 8/13/24
Rudaw, “Mass fish die-off in Iraq is ‘environmental disaster,’ says official,” 8/17/24
World Food Programme, “Drought In Iraq,” July 2024
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