Drought-stricken Iraq pleads for more water from upstream neighbours
Amid a worsening water crisis at home, Iraq’s foreign minister used his time at the UN podium on Saturday to call on upstream neighbours to reduce their use of waterways that flow into the country. Iraq is in the midst of an unprecedented drought, which has eclipsed previously notable low-rainfall years in 2009 and 2015. […]Campbell MacDiarmid writes for The National:
Amid a worsening water crisis at home, Iraq’s foreign minister used his time at the UN podium on Saturday to call on upstream neighbours to reduce their use of waterways that flow into the country.
Iraq is in the midst of an unprecedented drought, which has eclipsed previously notable low-rainfall years in 2009 and 2015.
Lower than average rainfalls, higher summer temperatures thought to be associated with climate change, and reduced river flows from upstream – as Turkey begins to fill a controversial dam – have combined to create a complex environmental and social crisis in the country’s south.
