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Iraq Bans Summer Crops As Water Crisis Grows Dire
July 6th, 2018
Via the Seattle Times, an article on Iraq’s growing water crisis: Iraq has banned its farmers from planting summer crops this year as the country grapples with a crippling water shortage that shows few signs of abating. Citing high temperatures and insufficient rains, Dhafer Abdalla, an adviser to Iraq’s Ministry of Water Resources, told The […]
Read more »Catastrophic Drought Threatens Iraq As Dams In Surrounding Countries Cut Off Water To Its Great Rivers
July 4th, 2018
Via The Independent, an article on how – after decades of war – Iraq is in danger of losing the waters of the Tigris and Euphrates as Turkey, Syria and Iran dam its rivers, turning parts of the country into desert: “I once rescued a friend from drowning when he was swept away by the force of […]
Read more »Turkey Uses Ilisu Dam to Play Politics with Iraq’s Water Supply
June 13th, 2018
Via Future Directions International, a report on Turkey’s use of Ilisu dam to play politics with Iraq’s water supply: Background Turkey’s decision to start filling the Ilisu dam earlier than promised, took Iraq by surprise. Iraq is currently suffering from a water crisis, as drought and the dams built by Turkey slow the flow of […]
Read more »Turkey Seeks to Reassure Iraqis Over Upstream Dam
June 6th, 2018
Courtesy of the New York Times, a report on Turkish/Iraqi water concerns: Turkey said Tuesday that Iraqis have nothing to fear from the filling of an upstream reservoir on the Tigris River, saying “sufficient quantities of water” would continue to flow to the neighboring country. Ambassador Fatih Yildiz told reporters in Baghdad that it will […]
Read more »A Watershed Moment for Iraqi Kurdistan: Subnational Hydropolitics and Regional Stability
May 24th, 2018
Via the Wilson Center’s New Security Beat, an article on the hydropolitics of Kurdistan, Syria, and Iraq: Iraqi Kurdistan is blessed with abundant water resources, but these resources are under increasing stress. Changing demographics, dam building in neighboring countries, and drought have driven Kurdish hydropolitics to a critical juncture where two distinct water futures are […]
Read more »Causes of the Drought in Southern Iraq
May 9th, 2018
Via Future Directions International, a report on Iraq’s drought: A worsening drought is threatening agriculture and livelihoods in the Dhi Qar Governorate of Iraq, 300 kilometres south of Baghdad. Other southern agricultural governorates, including Al-Q?disiyyah, Muthanna and Missan, are also suffering under the effects of the drought. The southern agricultural provinces of Iraq are home […]
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