The water crisis is deepening.. 61% of families have reduced their ability to obtain water for drink

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[size=52]The water crisis is deepening.. 61% of families have reduced their ability to obtain water for drinking and daily uses[/size]

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[size=45]Year after year, Iraq is losing its water due to drought, amid growing fears that its lands will turn into a desert, with the continued decline of rains and the decline in the level of rivers in the country.[/size]
[size=45]With the drought continuing in Iraq, six out of ten families face difficulty accessing drinking water, while 25% of families have witnessed a significant decline in their agricultural crops, according to a survey issued by the non-governmental organization "Norwegian Refugee Council" published today, Monday.[/size]
[size=45]The questionnaire included 1,341 families from five Iraqi governorates, especially Anbar in the west, Basra in the south and Nineveh in the north, while Iraq suffers for the third year in a row from a decrease in rain and river levels.[/size]
[size=45]fertile lands vanishing[/size]
[size=45]In turn, James Moon, director of the Norwegian Refugee Council office in Iraq, said in a statement, “We are witnessing continued damage from the climate and water crisis in Iraq.[/size]
[size=45]"People are seeing their fertile lands and crops disappear with each passing year," he added. The lands that have always fed a people are drying up quickly.”[/size]
[size=45]The results of the survey also showed that drought had a “directly” impact on families’ ability to access water for drinking and irrigation, and “a decrease in wheat, vegetable and fruit yields.”[/size]
[size=45]No water to drink[/size]
[size=45]According to the report, “61 percent of families said that their access to drinking water and daily use has decreased over the past year.”[/size]
[size=45]Also, one in five families said they had either run out of water or had to rely more and more on poor quality water.[/size]
[size=45]In Basra Governorate, where the Tigris and Euphrates meet before they empty into the sea, some districts lack drinking water from “canals and rivers due to the very low water level and high salinity.”[/size]
[size=45]The survey stated that the equivalent of a quarter of the families surveyed witnessed the failure of more than “90% of the wheat crop this season as a direct result of the lack of water.”[/size]
[size=45]Also, another 25 percent said they had not made any net profit from their wheat crop for the whole year.[/size]
[size=45]low production[/size]
[size=45]Long droughts have also forced a quarter of farming families to rely on food aid amid a crop shortage.[/size]
[size=45]As a result, 35% of families were forced to reduce their food consumption.[/size]
[size=45]Also, "42% of the families said that their production of barley, fruits and vegetables has decreased compared to the previous season."[/size]
[size=45]It is noteworthy that government estimates indicate that desertification has invaded 39% of Iraqi lands, while salinity is threatening the soil in agricultural areas by more than 54%, which coincided with a very low rainy season during last winter.[/size]
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