“Thirst Crisis in Iraq: Climate Change, Drought and Water Scarcity Depriving Thousands of Drinking Water in Anbar Governorate”

2023-05-12 07:52:06

The phenomenon of climate change is rampant in Iraq, to ​​the extent that its repercussions represented in the increasing frequency of desertification, drought and water scarcity have reached the point of depriving thousands of Iraqis, in some areas of Anbar Governorate, in the west of the country, from drinking water.

Specifically, the Al-Ankur area near the district of Ramadi, with a population of more than 9,000 people, suffers from the signs of a thirst crisis due to the lack of drinking water for citizens, as a result of the water pumps stopping as a result of the low levels of the Euphrates River, and the drying up of a large part of the Habbaniyah Lake that overlooks it.

The distress of the population

With the exacerbation of the unavailability of drinking water crisis, the people of the region migrated to other areas within the governorate, while those remaining there struggled to obtain it by purchasing water through tankers, which is often impure and not suitable for drinking, or relying on water that charitable organizations are trying to provide for them. And humane, according to the testimonies of the population and their requests through social networks and platforms.

ghost thirst

Environmental experts believe that what they have been constantly warning regarding has happened, and that this region is true that it is the first to face the danger of its population’s thirst, but it will not be the last, according to them, in light of the worsening climate change crisis afflicting Iraq as the fifth most affected country in the world according to the United Nations, and the reluctance of solutions To confront it and not guarantee Iraq’s shares and rights in the waters of the Tigris and Euphrates.

Ayman Haitham Qaddouri, an environmental expert and member of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, said in an interview with Sky News Arabia:

• The areas of Al-Ankur and Al-Majar, which are inhabited by more than 10 thousand people, face the danger of thirst and are located to the south of Lake Habbaniyah, and depend mainly on the water of the lake to meet the daily need for water. Lake Habbaniyah, as a result of the constant water scarcity suffered by the Euphrates River, and the receding of its waters due to Turkey’s encroachment on Iraq’s water share.
• The drying of Nazim Al-Warar also took regarding 85,000 agricultural dunums out of service. As a result, the water of Lake Habbaniyah receded by 40 percent, which resulted in the lake moving away from the pumping and desalination stations for more than 2 kilometers, which negatively affected the nearby residential areas, most notably the Al-Ankour area. .
• The drought crisis has reached the point of completely cutting off drinking water from the region, in addition to the loss of Lake Habbaniyah to the fish wealth, which is the source of livelihood for the families of the village of Al-Ankur.
• What increases the catastrophic scene is that the Ministry of Water Resources, the District Commissioner of Habbaniyah district, says that the lake will be out of service soon due to the inability of the ministry to open the Ramadi dam and transport water through the Al-Warr river towards the lake due to the low levels of the Euphrates River, which means a threat to the stability of 7 thousand other families living in the areas of Al-Tash and Al-Bujaber and Al-Humaira north and northwest of Habbaniyah Lake.
• The drought led to the transformation of the water in the micro-cracks (artificial cracks) that bring the lake water closer to the pumps to 100 percent polluted stagnant water, as a result of the decomposition of organic matter and its transformation into a source of diseases and epidemics.
• The thirst crisis has already begun, and Al-Ankur families have begun to migrate from drought-prone areas towards Ramadi in the north.

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