International organizations warn: Drought threatens more than 7 million people in Iraq

[size=52]International organizations warn: Drought threatens more than 7 million people in Iraq[/size]

[size=45]Translation / Hamed Ahmed[/size]
[size=45]A group of 13 humanitarian relief organizations working in the region warned today that more than 12 million people in Iraq and Syria are at risk of being deprived of water, food and electricity as a result of an acute water crisis facing them, calling for urgent measures to be taken to address this crisis.[/size]
[size=45]The report of international organizations stated that drought and record rates of low rainfall with rising temperatures across the region are all factors that deprive the people of drinking water and watering farms. It also works to disrupt the supply of electric power at a time when the dams are devoid of water storage, which in turn has effects on the work of vital infrastructure, including health facilities.[/size]
[size=45]She said high temperatures caused by climate change increase the risks and severity of droughts. Humanitarian organizations, which include the Norwegian Refugee Council, CARE and Action Against Hunger, among others, said that at least 7 million Iraqis are threatened with drought and deprived of access to water from the river, noting that more than five million other citizens in Syria They will be deprived of the waters of the river on which they directly depend.[/size]
[size=45]In Iraq, large swathes of farmland, fishing lakes, power plants and drinking water sources have dried up. The report stated that Nineveh Governorate is expected to decrease the production of the wheat crop by 70% due to drought, while wheat production in the Kurdistan region is expected to decrease by half. The organizations statement said that some families in Anbar who do not have access to water from the river spend about 80 dollars a month to get water. “The complete collapse of water and food production for millions of people in Iraq and Syria is imminent,” said Carsten Hansen, Regional Director of the Norwegian Refugee Council. With hundreds of thousands of people still displaced in Iraq, and many more fleeing for their lives in Syria, the emergence of the water crisis will soon become an unprecedented catastrophe that will force many to flee. While, Nirvana Shawky, CARE Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa, said, “The situation requires the authorities in the region and donor governments to move quickly to save many lives in this latest crisis, which comes amid other crises represented by the outbreak of the Corona epidemic, severe economic deterioration and unstable security conditions. stable. Beyond the emergency water and food crisis, they need in the long run to invest in sustainable solutions to the water crisis.” The Danish Refugee Council's regional director for the Middle East, Jerry Garvey, said, “This water crisis is expected to take a turn for the worse. It is expected to intensify the conflict in an already unstable region. There is no time to spare, we have to find sustainable solutions that guarantee the availability of water and food now and for future generations.”[/size]
[size=45]Many farmers spent their savings and got themselves into debt in order to keep their animals alive. Hamed Ali from the Al-Baaj area, which is considered one of the most drought-affected areas in Nineveh, said, “Because of the drought, I was not able to harvest any amount of wheat this year. And now I'm heavily in debt.”[/size]
[size=45]In a report published by the regional office of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Iraq on August 22, it was mentioned that one of the reasons for the recent decline in the return of the displaced to their areas is due to the drought factor that affected most of the agricultural and rural areas in the country.[/size]
[size=45]وقالت منظمة الهجرة انها رصدت خلال الفترة المحصورة ما بين شهري أيار وتموز 2021 تسجيل ادنى معدل عودة للنازحين الى ديارهم منذ العام 2015، مشيرة الى ان ذلك يعود لعدة عوامل مشتركة امنية واقتصادية وكذلك لعامل الجفاف الحاصل في مناطق زراعية وريفية حول البلاد، حيث ان النازحين غير قادرين على العودة لمخاطر عواقب حالة الجفاف. وجاء في تقرير المنظمة “كثير من النازحين لا يستطيعون العودة لمناطقهم خشية مواجهتهم عواقب حالة الجفاف خصوصا النازحين الذين ترجع اصولهم لمناطق الحضر والبعاج من محافظة نينوى”. واستنادا لتقرير أصدرته الأمم المتحدة في حزيران فانه منذ خريف 2020 شهدت منطقة حوض البحر المتوسط معدلات منخفضة جدا من مواسم الامطار ساهمت في إيجاد ظروف جفاف في كل من العراق وسوريا. وقالت ان ازمة المياه رافقها تدنيا حادا بمناسيب تدفق المياه لنهر الفرات عبر تركيا على مدى اشهر، حيث انخفض من معدل 500 متر مكعب بالثانية خلال شهر كانون الثاني الى 214 متر مكعب بالثانية خلال شهر حزيران.[/size]
[size=45]According to the United Nations, Iraq is facing the second most dry season in 40 years due to the lack of rainfall, while Syria is currently facing the worst dry season in seven years.[/size]
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