BaghdadThe water scarcity crisis in Iraq has worsened in recent years for several reasons and factors intertwined together, including mismanagement of water use, climate change, and a decline in water supplies from their sources centered in Turkey and Iran, while United Nations data indicate that 90% of Iraq’s rivers are polluted, and it is expected that By 2035, Iraq’s water will not meet more than 15% of the country’s needs.
A few days ago, former Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi warned that Iraq today faces an existential crisis that threatens its basic sources of life, noting that water scarcity and the decline in strategic reserves have become a real threat to farmers, especially in the marsh areas in the south of the country.
Causes of the crisis
To talk about the causes of the water crisis in Iraq and the solutions developed to address it, Al Jazeera Net met with the Iraqi Minister of Water Resources, Aoun Dhiyab Abdullah, in an interview in which he stressed that climate changes have become a tangible reality that Iraq is experiencing during the years of repeated drought that the country has witnessed, indicating that this reality requires adopting solutions. An urgent strategy to confront the water challenges facing the country.
The Minister of Water Resources indicated that the proposed solutions vary between immediate and future solutions, explaining that among the immediate solutions is the fair distribution of water to all beneficiaries, which can contribute significantly to alleviating pressures on water resources. The Minister also stressed the need to change the country’s water system, especially since agriculture is considered the main consumer of water.
In this context, Abdullah revealed positive steps taken by the government to address water waste from two aspects:
- Farmers develop new irrigation methods
- The Ministry of Agriculture provides modern irrigation equipment
The minister explained that more than 12,000 irrigation devices were distributed this year alone by the Ministry of Agriculture, and they are expected to contribute to irrigating more than one million dunums of agricultural land.
Water deficit
Minister Abdullah continued that Iraq’s need for water was studied according to a strategy conducted by a British company, which concluded that if the targeted agricultural land areas were about 13 million dunums, it would require 54 billion cubic meters annually. Currently, in Iraq, there is agricultural land estimated at between 7 and 8 million dunums that require approximately 46 billion cubic meters annually. According to the study, it is possible to rationalize water consumption for agriculture by following modern irrigation methods.
The minister also indicated a tendency to invest every drop of water, whether it is from agricultural drainage, groundwater, or homes. It also emphasizes the future trend towards recycling wastewater, which reflects the government’s commitment to working to achieve self-sufficiency in water and reduce waste.
The Minister considered that Iraq faces great challenges in the field of water, but he hopes to achieve tangible progress in this field through the strategic solutions that have been adopted, calling for joint cooperation between all concerned parties to achieve sustainability in the use of water resources and confront climate change, which is considered a global challenge.
Water harvesting dams
The Minister of Water Resources also confirmed that the strategic study conducted showed that Iraq does not currently need to establish large storage dams, but rather needs the availability of water instead, indicating that the storage space is comfortably available and the actual need is for water harvesting dams to benefit from the torrents in the valleys. And desert areas.
He added that the ministry intends to establish 36 dams of this type, in addition to electrical energy dams that are used to raise the water level to obtain sustainable hydroelectric energy, explaining that this step aims to improve the use of water resources and enhance water security in the country.
Meeting in Türkiye next month
Abdullah reiterated the importance of cooperation with neighboring countries, especially Turkey, where 70% of river water in Iraq is the source, pointing to next month’s meeting of the Turkish-Iraqi Joint Committee, with a direction for cooperation towards Turkish companies implementing water infrastructure projects.
The Minister of Water Resources expected that there would be a qualitative change in addressing the water crisis through rationalization of consumption and rational use of this wealth, especially after the marshes (southern Iraq) entered the World Heritage List and Iraq was bound by conditions and standards that must be implemented.
The Iraqi marshes are among the largest lakes and bodies of water in the Middle East, with a combined area estimated at 20,000 square kilometers. They are depressions in the ground in which river water collects and then turns into wide lakes with different depths.
Southern Iraq includes three main marshes: the Hawizeh Marsh on the Iranian border, the Hamar Marsh in the center of the region, and the Euphrates Marsh, which extends north and west of Basra and south of the Amara region, close to the mouth of the Tigris and Euphrates.
Senior international negotiator
For his part, water expert Tahseen al-Musawi called for international negotiations to be held under the auspices of a global body such as the European Union, the World Bank, or the United States, to resolve the worsening water crisis in Iraq.
Al-Moussawi stressed – during his speech to Al-Jazeera Net – that the ability to achieve tangible results in the negotiations with Turkey and Iran depends greatly on the strength of the Iraqi negotiator, and he believes that the weakness that we witnessed in previous periods is due to the inability of the Iraqi negotiators to invest in important files, such as security and the economy, Especially after the recent agreement linked to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party.
Al-Musawi stresses that Iraq must exploit its economic power to fulfill its need for water from both Iran and Turkey, noting that the Iraqi trade balance with Turkey has reached 24 billion dollars, which is a large number, which indicates the importance of water-related investments.
However, it indicates a noticeable decline in investments related to Iraq’s basins, as the country was unable to reach an agreement obligating Turkey to stabilize Iraq’s share of water, which led to a decline in the agricultural plan and an increase in the rate of desertification and pollution.
Al-Musawi notes that Iraq went through 4 years of severe drought, during which the river basins reached the point that they became playgrounds and crossing areas, which led to a large migration from the countryside to the cities, stressing the need to deal seriously with this crisis and benefit from international expertise to come up with practical and effective solutions. .
