Iraq faces the threat of “desertification” and the government advances with turtle legs

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[size=52]Iraq faces the threat of “desertification” and the government advances with turtle legs[/size]

[size=45]Half of Iraq's land is threatened by desertification, and with the advancement of sand dunes in many areas, the danger is great, and is increasing year after year. Despite the government's attempts to develop plans to prevent the spread of desertification in the country, due to sandstorms, entire areas suffer from it.
The United Nations classifies Iraq among the five countries most affected by climate change in the world, while Iraq denounces the dams built by neighboring Turkey and Iran, which have caused a noticeable decrease in the level of rivers flowing into its lands. With the decline in rainfall, drought and desertification have become more severe in recent years, prompting the authorities to significantly reduce the areas of cultivated land in proportion to the available water quantities.
Delay
According to some sources, including the Ministry of Agriculture, the area of ​​desertified land in Iraq is about 27 million dunams, which is approximately equivalent to 15% of the country's area, while about 55% of Iraq's area is considered land threatened by desertification, and the most affected governorate is Dhi Qar, with a damage rate of 53%, while the rest of the governorates have rates ranging from (1-14)%.
Last July, Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani directed the launch of a major afforestation campaign. The
official government spokesman, Bassem al-Awadi, said about the fourth session of the Supreme Coordination Committee between the provinces not organized into a region, headed by the Prime Minister, that al-Sudani “directed the launch of a major afforestation campaign, and exerted efforts regarding the axis of services and fires, with the Iraqi Media Network to undertake an awareness campaign to explain the importance of the afforestation campaign.”
However, the lack of effective government plans and a long-term strategy to confront climate change will threaten the fate of agriculture and livestock, and also threaten the lives of Iraqis in general, from the point of view of the expert in the fields of agriculture and water. Iraq does not have any long-term strategies to reduce the consequences of climate change, due to the government’s late measures in this important file.
Last July, the Iraqi Ministry of Agriculture announced the adoption of modern global technologies used for the first time in the country to confront desertification.
Director General of the Horticulture and Forestry Department at the Ministry of Agriculture, Dr. Bassam Kanaan Abdul Jabbar, said in an interview with Al-Sabah newspaper, which was reviewed by Al-Sa’a Network, that “his department has adopted a modern global technology that is being applied for the first time in the country to combat desertification, which is water boxes, each of which holds 15 to 20 liters of water, which are filled through basins, with the aim of gradually providing water to plants through threaded pipes.”
He stressed that “the technology was applied within a distance of two kilometers on the expressway at the (Katia) site in Dhi Qar Governorate and has proven successful, and the experiment will be followed up and evaluated until the end of next August with the aim of fully adopting it for areas afflicted with desertification, and that this technology has succeeded in countries in the region, namely Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the Emirates.”
He explained that “there are future plans for his department to expand green spaces in Iraq and support biodiversity, through afforestation campaigns and the Iraqi Hamad Basin project, in addition to sand dune stabilization projects, contributing to protecting the environment and supporting sustainable development plans.”
For its part, the Iraqi Red Crescent Society launched the “Climate Smart Agriculture” project to cultivate Sudanese grass “fodder” in the governorates of Dhi Qar, Diwaniyah and Babil in cooperation with the Swedish Red Cross.
The director of the construction and sanitation department at the society, Nawar Abdul Qader, said, “This project is one of the most important projects to support farmers’ livelihoods, as it aims to help farmers settle on the land after the drought.”
He explained that “the area covered by the project in the three governorates amounts to 51 dunums, which will be planted with grass, which the World Agriculture Organization encourages to be planted, at a rate of 2 dunums per farmer.”
According to experts, sand dunes cover more than 4 million dunums in the country, concentrated in the governorates of Wasit, Dhi Qar, Salah al-Din, Diwaniyah and Muthanna.
MP Mudhar Maan revealed last July that the proposal for the “Environment Fund Project” would be implemented, pointing out the need to address the environment as part of national security priorities with the loss of 40% of green belts and sand dune buffers over the past twenty years.
Maan said that “the severe climate changes that Iraq has witnessed in recent years are worrying, especially with recent studies by many centers on their significant impact on the country’s environment with the decline in water supplies, the expansion of desertification, and the emergence of the danger of sand dunes that stand on the borders of 6 governorates.”
He added that “the environment must be addressed as part of the country’s national security priorities and efforts should be made to form an environmental fund that secures the necessary funds for real projects to stop desertification and build sand dune buffer lines while reviving green belts in more than 40 locations in the west, north, south, and east of the country.”
He pointed out that “Iraq lost more than 40% of its traditional green belts after 2003, due to erosion, desertification, pests, neglect, security disturbances and fires,” noting that “the financing of the Environment Fund is by determining percentages from the governorates’ budgets in addition to collecting donations on a scale that provides a real possibility to start projects that guarantee environmental support according to a roadmap that does not stop at agriculture but rather continues with care.”
He continued, “The project will soon be presented to the Prime Minister in order to proceed with it according to the approved procedures because the file is extremely important.”
Migration and Storms
Despite the improvement in the country’s water reserves following the recent rainy season, the specter of drought in Iraq still casts a shadow over the future of agriculture in its infancy, especially with the Turkish side’s hesitation in fulfilling Iraq’s water rights from the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.
With the country being exposed to successive heat waves during the current summer, fears of the repercussions of climate change in the country have returned, of which drought, desertification and dust storms are some of the forms, amid demands for serious follow-up of Turkish violations regarding Iraq’s share of water.
In this context, the Parliamentary Agriculture and Marshlands Committee had previously called on Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani to form a government committee with the participation of members of the parliamentary committee to follow up on the Turkish side’s continued cutting off of water to Iraq.
Committee member Rafiq al-Salihi said in a press statement that the drought and lack of water in lands and orchards in the central and southern Euphrates governorates, as well as the marshes, had caused farmers to migrate to cities, leaving behind barren land.
He added that "the continued Turkish cutting of Iraq's water share has pushed others to encroach on the shares of the central and southern governorates."
Of Iraq's more than 130 million dunams, the desertified area is about 95 million dunams, while the area of ​​land threatened by desertification is more than 27 million dunams, while the arable land is only 12 million dunams, with Iraq losing more than 200,000 dunams of arable land annually due to desertification. The
United Nations report on the desertification crisis and the disappearance of pastures indicates that the regions most affected by the deterioration of pastures are Central Asia, North Africa and the Near East.
The list includes countries such as Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, the Emirates and Yemen.[/size]
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