Iraq
The dry marsh of Chibayish near the southern Iraqi city of Nasiriyah. Photo: Haidar Hamdani/AFP
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraq on Tuesday slammed Turkish claims that put the war-torn country’s “water wastage” as the main reason for the alarming drought that is engulfing it.
Turkish Ambassador to Iraq Ali Riza Guney earlier in the day absolved Turkey of any blame for worsening Iraq's water crisis, claiming that Iraq needs to maximize its water efficiency as "water is largely wasted in Iraq."
Hours after Guney’s remarks, Iraqi water resources minister Mahdi Rashid al-Hamadani deemed the statement about wasting water in Iraq “incorrect,” further calling on Iraq's foreign ministry to "summon the ambassador and submit a note of protest against his repeated statements in this regard," reported state media.
Hamdani blamed Ankara for using "water waste" as a pretext for cutting Iraq's water supply, which it has done by damming key rivers that flow southward into Iraq.
Guney stated that the solution to the issue is "not to demand more water from Turkey, but to use the available water most efficiently," audaciously noting in the remarks that “investments must be made in [the water] infrastructure and Turkish companies are ready for this."
Water scarcity is a severe issue in Iraq. The country is the fifth-most vulnerable nation in the world to the effects of climate change, including water and food insecurity, according to the UN.
However, the issue is exacerbated by the Turkish and Iranian damming of rivers that flow into Iraq, cutting off the increasingly dry nation from much-needed water relief. Ankara has built a mega-dam on the Tigris River.
Much of Iraq's agricultural lands depend on irrigation, but dams and reservoirs were at record-low levels this summer.
A senior advisor at the Iraqi water resources ministry warned in April that the country's water reserves have halved since last year, due to a combination of drought, lack of rainfall, and declining water levels.
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