IRAQ’S WATER RESERVES AT ‘LOWEST’ IN HISTORY SAYS MINISTRY

Tue 08 August 2023:

Iraq’s water reserves are at the “lowest” in the country’s history, a spokesman for the Water Resources Ministry was quoted as saying yesterday, having reduced to almost half of last year’s amount.

“Current water reserves in Iraq are the lowest in the history of the country, and are 50 per cent of last year,” spokesman Khaled Shamal told Rudaw.

Shamal also revealed that the amount of water flowing into Iraq through the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers is lower than the amount being released by the retention dams on both waterways. The Mosul dam on the Tigris River receives 275 cubic metres of water per second (mcps) but releases 400 mcps, while the Haditha dam on the Euphrates River releases 200 mcps but only receives a flow of 153 mcps, the report noted.

Earlier this year, the ministry reported that the water reserves in Iraq had decreased to seven billion metres cubed, compared to 60 billion metres cubed in 2020. According to Shamal, currently, the country’s water reserves are at five billion metres cubed.

Last month the official said that water flows on the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers have decreased by about 70 per cent this year, compared to previous decades.

Iraq’s water crisis has been attributed to desertification, upstream damming in Turkiye and Iran, climate change, outdated domestic irrigation techniques and a lack of long-term management plans as the root causes of a water crisis that is driving thousands out of the countryside.

The UN Environment Program (UNEP) has previously warned that water availability in Iraq will decrease by around 20 per cent by 2025, threatening the long-term stability of agriculture and industry sectors.