Political turmoil in Iraq deepens crisis of water scarcity as difficulty of securing drinking water looms

Iraq’s political turmoil of failing to form a government has prevented the country from addressing the crisis of acute water scarcity, especially in southern provinces, where citizens are at risk of insecurity of drinking water.

The United Nations labeled Iraq as one of the top five countries most affected by climate change and the 39th most water stressed. Last year, the country saw the second driest season in 40 years, which “led to water shortages, desertification, and soil erosion due to unsustainable agricultural practices and shrinking, damaged vegetation cover.”

Two weeks ago, Iraq witnessed bloody protests by the supporters of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr in Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone after he quit political life in protest against the failure of forming a government with his Iranian-backed Shiite rivals on August 29. A curfew was imposed across the capital, and clashes erupted between Sadr’s supporters and the pro-Iran Popular Mobilization Forces.

The formation of a government was not the only political issue. The parliament’s activities were somehow suspended when Sadr’s parliamentary bloc - the majority in the parliament - resigned and called for dissolving the parliament and holding early elections. The Shiite cleric also brought a case before the Federal Supreme Court to dissolve the parliament last month. However, the Federal Supreme Court stated that it has no authority to dissolve the parliament.

“The paralysis that afflicted the parliament over the past period prevented the committee [the parliamentary Committee for Agriculture, Water and Marshes] to carry out its work […] it did not issue any letters to internationalize the water file after it had intended to do so,” said Thaer Mukhif Al Kitab in an interview with the Iraqi Al Sabah newspaper.

The lawmaker attributed this inaction by the governments, parliament, and sectoral stakeholders to “the allegiances” of the political blocs to the neighboring countries of Iran and Turkey at the expense of the interest of the Iraqi people. He called upon Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi to form a crisis cell and intervene and visit Iran and Iraq, saying “Iraq is dying fast.”

Meanwhile, the Iraqi Ministry of Water on Friday warned of the difficulty of securing drinking water and irrigation in the next winter season if the level of drought rises. The ministry added that the priority of water release is given to securing drinking water.

“We suffer from water scarcity, as water releases are more than revenues,” Hatem Hamid al-Tamimi, director general of the National Center for Water Resources Management, told the Iraqi News Agency (INA) on Friday.

He added that Syria used to release more than Iraq's quota to help solve internal water scarcity, but it decreased to less than 50 percent after Turkey reduced its water releases from the Euphrates River to Syria and Iraq because of building Turkish dams.

Lack of rain has affected the Tigris and Euphrates rivers by 73 percent, said Sami Dimas, regional director of the United Nations Environment Program, in a press conference held at the Ministry of Environment on March 22. He added that the decline of the two rivers’ levels led to “an imbalance in the population by 70 percent” in rural places.

Furthermore, Syria and Iraq are suffering from some unilateral actions by the upstream countries (Iran and Turkey) due to building dozens of dams on the Euphrates and Tigris, like the Turkish Ilısu Dam and the Cizre Dam on the Tigris River, in addition other existing dams such as the Atatürk Dam on the Euphrates River. Also, the Iraqi government has accused Iran of building dams on the Tigris and diverting the river water to drought-stricken areas.

The Euphrates River rises from Turkey and moves southwards to Syria and then Iraq, while the Tigris originates from the southeastern Anatolia region in Turkey and then goes to Iraq, where it joins the Euphrates at Shatt Al-Arab River before emptying into the Arabian Gulf. Other tributaries of the Tigris rise from Iran. Tributaries include the Lesser Zab River, Sirwan River which feeds the Diyala River in Iraq, and Karkheh River.

The revenues of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers received from Turkey decreased by 50 percent, as was stated by the Iraqi Ministry of Water Resources on May 11, 2021, INA reported. Meanwhile, water coming from Iran to the Darbandikhan Dam on Diyala River near the border was 0 percent.

Water scarcity has been noticeable in the southern provinces. The Iraqi Marshes are one of the most affected by climate change and water shortage, which “disastrously” impacted the livelihoods for more than 6,000 rural families after their buffalos started dying, FAO Iraq warned in a report on July 14.