Iraq's environment: accelerating towards disaster

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[size=52]Iraq's environment: accelerating towards disaster[/size]

[size=45]Serious concerns and fears have begun to afflict Iraqis, as they follow the serious deterioration of the environment and the repercussions and catastrophic damage that has begun to destroy people, animals, and plants in Iraq, amid the government’s negligence and inability to take measures commensurate with the scale of the disaster that has befallen the country and its people, despite local and international warnings.[/size]
[size=45]Months ago, a warning was issued by the Iraqi Minister of Water Resources, Awni Dhiyab, saying that “the ministry after May will face major challenges, represented by rising temperatures and the resulting evaporation of water, in addition to the citizens’ need for consumption,” warning that “this year “It will be difficult, and there are challenges, the most important of which is how to distribute this small amount of water fairly.” The minister stated that his ministry had taken measures to confront the crisis, including removing encroachments on unpermitted river basins and lakes.[/size]
[size=45]Meanwhile, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) recently warned that the marshes region in southern Iraq is witnessing the hottest heat wave in 40 years.[/size]
[size=45]In line with this context, Iraqi cities are witnessing the organization of many demonstrations, sit-ins, and blocking of roads to express anger at the cutting off of drinking water in many cities and the forcing of many of its residents to buy drinking water from the markets.[/size]
[size=45]Fish kill[/size]
[size=45]In a worrying phenomenon that has begun to be repeated in Iraq, some rivers have witnessed the death of thousands of fish and their covering of the water surface in some cities in southern Iraq without knowing the reasons. Videos spread on social media sites of river water in the southern provinces of Maysan and Diwaniyah, covered with thousands of dead fish floating on the surface of the rivers, which prompted the Iraqi authorities to announce the opening of an investigation to determine the causes of the death of hundreds of tons of fish in the rivers in the south of the country.[/size]
[size=45]For its part, the Diwaniyah Environment Directorate in southern Iraq announced that rapid measures would be taken to determine the cause of the death of large quantities of fish in the public estuary waters. Explaining that it is likely that the causes are due to natural factors, such as the increase in salt levels due to the rise in temperature and the decrease in river water levels, which has exposed aquatic organisms to danger, especially fish fingerlings.[/size]
[size=45]As for the Director of the Marshlands and World Heritage Division in the Maysan Environment Directorate, Khader Abbas Salman, he revealed that “it became clear through the field tests that we conducted that the percentage of oxygen is zero in the water in addition to the high percentage of salinity.”[/size]
[size=45]In 2018, Iraq witnessed a similar incident that occurred in Babil Governorate, when fish farmers were surprised by the death of thousands of carp fish without the authorities determining the reason behind this.[/size]
[size=45]Warnings of the consequences of drought[/size]
[size=45]In an analysis of the environmental pollution disaster, Fadel Al-Gharawi, head of the Strategic Center for Human Rights, said that the climate crisis in the world in general and in Iraq in particular threatens all of humanity.[/size]
[size=45]Al-Gharawi said in a statement, “The phenomenon of global warming has begun to appear clearly in Iraq, with rising rates of greenhouse gases due to the burning of gas associated with oil fields, failure to adhere to environmental determinants in reducing emissions from factories, and high rates of environmental pollution.”[/size]
[size=45]He added, "Environmental changes affected water resources and led to the drying up of many marsh areas and the destruction of thousands of dunams of crops planted in addition to the destruction of livestock and fish resources and the forced displacement of hundreds of families. Also, climate changes and the drought crisis in Iraq led to the exacerbation of the problem of housing, health, education and development." In these areas, the right to life has become threatened, especially for children.” Al-Gharawi warned that “the worsening water problem, high rates of drought and desertification, high temperature rates and global warming indicators in Iraq may cause conflicts over these resources.”[/size]
[size=45]He called on the government to “issue a climate solidarity document and contribute to reducing emissions of all kinds that lead to global warming in Iraq.” He also called on the government to compensate citizens who were harmed by climate change, the water crisis, and drought in Iraq, while intensifying diplomatic efforts to find solutions with downstream countries and countries. The riparian with Iraq to solve the water problem and call on the United Nations to formulate a new agreement under its supervision that includes Iraq, Iran and Turkey to solve all outstanding water problems. Last May, a spokesman for the Iraqi Ministry of Water Resources said that Iraq only gets 30 percent of its “natural entitlement” from river water (the Tigris and Euphrates) because of the dams built by neighboring Turkey and Iran, which have caused a noticeable decrease in water levels in Iraq’s rivers. In addition to the lack of rainfall in recent years and high temperatures, which made the United Nations classify Iraq among the five countries most affected by climate change in the world, while all attempts by the Baghdad government to obtain larger water releases from the rivers that originate in Iran and Turkey have failed. .[/size]
[size=45]International calls to save Iraq[/size]
[size=45]Warnings of the repercussions of drought in Iraq were not limited to local authorities, but were accompanied by the issuance of international warnings.[/size]
[size=45]The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) recently warned of the dangerous consequences of climate change and water scarcity on the marshes and buffalo breeders in southern Iraq, stressing that “the worrying field reports of its teams working in the marshes alongside the Iraqi Ministry of Agriculture indicate that the marshes are witnessing the most severe wave.” Heat for 40 years, accompanied by a sudden water shortage in the Euphrates River.”[/size]
[size=45]The FAO published frightening numbers about the water conditions, stating that “the water level in the Euphrates River reached only 56 cm, and in the Chibayish Marshes it reached from 0 to 30 cm.” The organization added in its statement that “high salinity levels exceeding 6,000 parts per million have raised concerns among farmers, especially buffalo breeders and fishermen,” noting that “nearly 70 percent of the marshes are devoid of water.”[/size]
[size=45]The representative of the Secretary-General of the United Nations in Iraq, Jeanine Plasschaert, indicated in the last briefing to the UN Security Council on the situation in Iraq that “water represents the most important climate crisis in Iraq.”[/size]
[size=45]She added, “By 2035, estimates indicate that Iraq will have the ability to meet only 15 percent of its water needs,” stressing that the pollution rate in Iraq’s rivers is 90 percent, and that “7 million people currently suffer from reduced access to water.” Plasschaert also urged countries around the world, especially those neighboring Iraq, to ​​help it solve the problem of water shortages and the risks of drought and pollution that it faces.[/size]
[size=45]At the end of 2021, the International Organization for Migration recorded the displacement of nearly 20,000 people due to water scarcity, high salinity, and poor water quality throughout Iraq. The organization notes that the inhabitants of the marshes, who used to always move within wetlands, view their current displacement as forced and permanent, as they can no longer rely on wetlands to maintain their livelihoods.[/size]
[size=45]The depth of the problem is that the decline in freshwater flows within the marshes has caused the Gulf’s salty water to infiltrate deep into the wetlands, a distance of up to about 190 kilometers. As a result, 24,000 hectares of land became unsuitable for agriculture, and more than 30,000 trees died. With the scarcity of fresh water, concentrations of pollutants from agricultural effluents, oil and gas waste, and wastewater have increased.[/size]
[size=45]Experts confirm that the animal sector is not the only one affected by drought, but that humans and plants in Iraq are also threatened. What made matters worse was that the water shortage was accompanied by the authorities’ lack of control over the continued pollution of rivers with human and industrial waste, such as oil pollution resulting from oil wells that leaked into the water, which led to toxic water contaminated with heavy metals reaching plants, animals and humans, who They drink that water.[/size]
[size=45]Increasing indicators of the collapse of the Iraqi environment confirm that the crisis of drought, water shortages and pollution in Iraq has become a reality and has reached the stage of disaster, the consequences of which have begun to emerge clearly in society, in contrast to the silence of the government and the failure of its measures and courtesies to neighboring countries and its inability to demand Iraq’s rights to the shared rivers, which... It reinforces the conviction that the country's future certainly does not bode well.[/size]
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