Iraq is losing its bodies of water... and resources: We seek to exploit rainwater

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[size=52]Iraq is losing its bodies of water... and resources: We seek to exploit rainwater[/size]

[size=45]Ayoub Saad[/size]
[size=45]The Tigris and Euphrates rivers are suffering from a serious drought crisis, due to the policy followed by the upstream countries of reducing Iraq's water share. According to the World Bank, Iraqi governments must invest $180 billion in infrastructure and building dams and irrigation projects during the next two decades.[/size]
[size=45]The spokesman for the Ministry of Water Resources, Khaled Shamal, said in an interview with Al Mada: “The Ministry is working to invest and ensure the distribution of any water revenues, whether rainwater or surface water that comes from neighboring countries, to preserve water bodies.” He adds, “The area of ​​water bodies, their water quality, and their levels have decreased significantly, due to Iraq going through four years of scarcity of rain and scarcity of revenues.”[/size]
[size=45]He continues, “Iraq receives only less than 40% of its natural entitlement, and we are losing 60% of natural revenues, and that more than 70% of Iraq’s raw water revenues come from outside Iraq, from Turkey, Iran, and then Syria.”[/size]
[size=45]Ministry of Water Resources spokesman Khaled Shamal hopes that “the year 2024 will be a good water year, in addition to seeking to increase surface levels, enhance strategic storage, improve water quality and revive the marshes, in addition to securing other requirements from the agricultural plan.”[/size]
[size=45]Water crisis[/size]
[size=45]Environmental expert Samim Salam said in an interview with Al Mada: “Falling rainwater may refresh dry areas somewhat, but it is not a source of actual storage. Reservoirs need continuous flowing water, as the percentage of water releases was one billion and 200 cubic meters from upstream countries, which has been reduced to Much less than that, as Iraq now receives 200-250 cubic meters on the Euphrates River, while on the Tigris River the rate of release is about 450-500 cubic meters.”[/size]
[size=45]He added: “The state did not take into account the construction of water harvesting dams on the flood streams in order to benefit from it as a storage resource, and it did not resume work in those that were stopped, as the western regions are considered a slope of the western plateau, so the flood waters descend from the Saudi north and eastern Jordan towards the western plateau of Iraq, supplying the valleys with water, such as the Hauran Valley.” Wadi Al-Asadi and others.”[/size]
[size=45]He added, “The rain line shifted from its position as a result of climate changes, so the areas with abundant rain became central and southern Iraq, as they were not as efficient as they were decades ago.”[/size]
[size=45]He continues, “The current water crisis that Iraq is going through has led to the depletion of its strategic water reserve, the emptying of Iraqi dams and reservoirs, and the exposing of the country’s water security to a real danger, which reflects negatively on many of the basic elements of society.”[/size]
[size=45]Salam calls for “working seriously to find immediate solutions to manage the water crisis at high-level diplomatic levels, obtaining Iraq’s water rights from upstream countries, and working truly to reform the water management system at the internal Iraqi level, given that the Iraqi water management system is one of the most flexible systems, but It lacks effective management.”[/size]
[size=45]Miscellaneous losses[/size]
[size=45]Regarding the damage caused by the drought of water bodies, the environmental expert explained in an interview with (Al-Mada), that “Iraq lost many bodies of water, which negatively affected fish wealth, the environment of migratory birds, and the environment of local animals and birds, and caused an imbalance in the environmental balance and the biological and ecological balance, such as Lake Habbaniyah.” Hamrin, Sawa, the marshes, Haditha Dam, and Lake Anah.[/size]
[size=45]As for the lakes and dams that are threatened with being out of service, Samim Salam explains, “There are dams and lakes that are in the stage of partial security and will soon be out of service, such as Lake Dukan and the Mosul Dam, which is about to be joined by the Haditha Dam, with the amount of water storage in it that has begun to approach one billion cubic meters, and this A very dangerous indicator, in addition to Lake Darbandikhan, which is considered partially safe.”[/size]
[size=45]Regarding human problems as a result of the drought, Salam says: “The drought generated many societal problems. The residents of the Habbaniyah Lake Basin, the regions (Al-Majjar and Al-Ankour), with a population of 13 thousand people, lost their source of livelihood as they used to practice the fishing profession. However, the drought in the lake forced them to migrate to cities with Water abundance, in addition to more than 1,500 children being affected as a result of skin diseases and digestive diseases, in addition to the displacement of more than 70 families.”[/size]
[size=45]International agreements[/size]
[size=45]Iraq is exposed to the risks of desertification due to drought waves resulting from the limited water share of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers after the construction of several dams on them by neighboring countries, despite the existence of international agreements and treaties regulating this, such as the “Ramsar” Treaty for Wetlands, which was launched in 1971 in Iran and became effective in 2011. 1975, and is headquartered in Geneva, and Iraq joined it in 2007.[/size]
[size=45]According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, this is the fourth year in a row that Iraq has witnessed a drought.[/size]
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