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Iran-Turkey Water Policy leaves Iraq Dry
January 12th, 2018
Via Arab News, a report on Iran and Turkey’s impact on Iraq’s water supply: Iraq has been negotiating with Turkey and Iran to minimize the effects of the two countries’ water policies on its territories, Iraqi Deputy Minister of Water Resources Mahdi Rasheed told Arab News on Wednesday. Rasheed said that the talks were aimed […]
Read more »Iraq Battles A New Enemy: Water Shortages
December 13th, 2017
Via The Daily Mail, an article on Iraq’s water problems: After years battling Islamic State militants, Iraqi farmers – many of them military volunteers – are now returning to their homes and fields only to find a new threat: a shortage of water. Construction of dams and other water-holding facilities in upstream Turkey and Iran, […]
Read more »‘Blue Gold’ – Turkey’s Key To The ‘Dry Crescent’
December 11th, 2017
Via Global Risk Insights, a report on the impact of Turkey’s efforts to control the headwaters of key water resources in Syria and Iraq: Next year will mark a full century since the Ottoman Empire lost control of the areas now known as Syria and Iraq. Now Turkey is pursuing an increasingly nationalistic and assertive foreign […]
Read more »Climate Change and Water Woes Drove ISIS Recruiting in Iraq
November 24th, 2017
Via National Geographic, a look at how desperate farmers – battered by scarce water and climate change – were driven into terror recruiters’ clutches: It was a few weeks after the rains failed in the winter of 2009 that residents of Shirqat first noticed the strange bearded men. Circling like vultures among the stalls of […]
Read more »Iraq’s Wetlands: Drying Up Again
September 18th, 2017
Via The Economist, an article on how war and dysfunctional politics threaten Iraq’s marshlands: THE recovery of southern Iraq’s marshlands is arguably one of the great environmental triumphs of recent times. Reduced to dust and withered reeds when Saddam Hussein drained them to flush out rebels in the 1990s, the wetlands once again buzz with […]
Read more »Can Iraq Reach Dam Agreement With Turkey To Protect Marshes?
October 7th, 2016
Courtesy of Al Monitor, a report on how recent Turkish dam projects, in particular the Ilisu Dam, are affecting the level of water in Iraq significantly with the marshes drying and the agricultural industry witnessing a significant decline: Severe drought is affecting agricultural lands across Iraq because of the low levels of river water. Iraqi officials […]
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