Iraq / Arab Summit News Agency
BAGHDAD – Iraq, whose civilization arose on the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates, is facing a catastrophic fate due to the scarcity of water, whose quantities have declined to a level that threatens the possibility of losing drinking water, in light of the decrease in the strategic water reserve to 7.5 billion cubic meters for the first time in the country’s history, according to the Ministry of Water Resources. last week.
And at a time when pictures and video clips spread of the drying up of large areas of the Tigris and Euphrates river basins in the south of the country, a spokesman for the Ministry of Water Resources, Khaled Shamal, revealed – in press statements – that the water reserves had reached stages he described as “very critical”, as the ministry could not Large water pumping to rivers, due to Iraq losing 70% of its water entitlements coming to it from neighboring countries.
The ministry attributed these conditions to the drought that has been going on for 3 years, and the agricultural plan, which put great pressure on the water reserve.
Drinking water crisis
In the context, the Iraqi government last year reduced the area of land covered by the seasonal agricultural plan by half, while excluding certain provinces from the plan entirely, at a time when the international water stress index revealed that Iraq is threatened to become without rivers by 2040 with the drying up of the Tigris rivers. and the Euphrates.
And while specialists warn that the crisis will extend to drinking water, the spokesman for water resources, Khaled Shamal – in an interview with Al-Jazeera Net – reassured the Iraqis, indicating that his ministry maintains the level of drinking water nationwide, but he acknowledged the existence of cases of displacement towards water sources from some areas. which suffer from drought, in addition to the death of some animals from the livestock.
The reason for the decline of the waters of the Tigris and Euphrates is due to the “policies of the upstream countries” that have built many major dams and reclamation projects, without coordination with Iraq, which is a downstream country, and this affected its historical entitlements in the two rivers, whose revenues declined to less than 30% of Their natural rates, according to Khaled Shamal, who indicated that Iraq had suffered in addition to that in the past three years from a severe drought that led to the depletion of the largest part of the water reserve.
Meanwhile, Iraq is seeking to reach an agreement with Turkey to raise water releases by 400 cubic meters per second from the Tigris River, and 500 cubic meters per second from the Euphrates River.
A high-ranking delegation headed by Iraqi Defense Minister Thabet al-Abbasi visited Turkey last week, but the Turkish side did not clarify its position on these claims, according to Shamal.
The spokesman added that the Minister of Water Resources, Aoun Diab, also paid a visit last week to Iran and met with those concerned with managing the water file, as the two parties agreed to install monitoring stations for drainage inside Iraq on the common border rivers, in order to then determine the measures that can be taken.
In less than 4 years, specifically since 2019, Iraq – which has ranked fifth on the global drought index – has lost about 53 billion cubic meters of its water reserves, according to data from the Ministry of Water Resources.
To find out the role of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the water crisis associated with neighboring countries, Al-Jazeera Net contacted the Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs to find out its latest movements towards the source countries, but it did not respond to attempts to obtain comment.
As for a member of the Parliament’s Foreign Relations Committee, Muthanna Amin, he confirmed that the parliament did not address the water file and did not think about it at all, commenting, “It seems that the parliament is busy with other issues, so its agenda did not include anything related to this issue despite the multiple attempts to include it.”
In his speech to Al-Jazeera Net, Amin added, “With reference to the fact that the Iraqi government is concerned with this file, but it also did not give it importance, so the upstream countries continue to cut the water share without any regard for good neighborliness, and this prevents any agreement with them,” pointing out. That the crisis will affect the level of securing drinking water, he said.
Meanwhile, the director of the Water Resources Department in Dhi Qar Governorate, Ghazwan Abdul Amir, said that according to the available water reserves, the coming summer will be harsh, warning of the possibility of losing drinking water in some areas unless the ministry’s procedures are respected and the continued violation of water quotas is prevented. Confirming that drinking water pumps have stopped in Islah district in the governorate.
Ramadan Hamza, an expert in water strategies and policies, agrees with this opinion, who added that the remaining water reserve in Mosul Dam is only one billion cubic meters, and then it will resort to the reserve in Tharthar Lake to go towards the Euphrates River, and thus many areas will suffer from drought.
Hamza said – in that the use of stored water will be limited to drinking only, which may not be available in many areas, warning that this will lead to forgetting agriculture in the coming summer, and then it will be reflected in the occurrence of climatic migration, as he put it.
It is noteworthy that Iraq owns 19 dams throughout the country, most of which are built on the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and their tributaries, as the country relies on water from the upstream countries of Turkey and Iran to obtain water.
