Iraq will stop the cultivation of crops as a result of water scarcity
Baghdad, August 4 / WAM / Iraqi Minister of Water Resources Aoun Dhiab Abdullah said that the year 2025 is one of the most difficult years that passes on Iraq in terms of water scarcity, in light of the continuous decrease in water imports coming from neighboring countries, indicating that this crisis coincides with the continued drought that strikes the region as a whole.
The minister added, in statements reported by the government newspaper, that crop cultivation will stop completely during the month of September as a result of water scarcity, “but he said that climatic expectations indicate the possibility of rain during the month of October, with a noticeable decrease in temperatures during September, which reflects positively in reducing evaporation rates.
He explained that the water storage in the dams and major cabinets, such as Mosul, Darbandikhan, Dukan, Al -Thahar, Haditha and Rhin, decreased to less than eight billion cubic meters, a number that is low compared to agricultural and population needs in the country.
He pointed out that the pattern of operation of dams in Turkey led to a decrease in the amount of water coming to Iraq via the Euphrates River to half compared to the natural quantities, adding that Turkey is also building dams on the branches of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers to maximize its water benefit, which directly affects the shares of Iraq.
He said that the water releases from Turkey to the Syrian border currently amount to about 350 cubic meters per second (m3/s), but the quantity that actually reaches a modern dam is less than 200 m3/s, before it is discharged to the Euphrates River inside Iraq, and for the Tigris River, the Turkish releases reached about 200 m3/s.
Stopping agriculture in September means stopping wheat cultivation this season, two years after self -sufficiency in producing exceeding five million tons.
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