Climate change costs Iraq 400,000 dunums of agricultural land annually: UN

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraq loses over 400 thousand dunums of agricultural land annually due to the effects of climate change and increasing temperatures in the country, Iraqi state media on Monday cited the representative of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Iraq.

“Climate change represents a direct threat to the country, and this threat can be seen in water scarcity, dust storms, extreme heat waves, desertification, food security, loss of biodiversity, and land degradation,” Auke Lootsma, UNDP Iraq representative told Iraqi state media.

“Iraq loses about 400 thousand dunums of agricultural land annually,” he added.

Lootsma said that Iraq is classified as fifth among the countries most vulnerable to the effects of climate change, adding that the temperature in Iraq increases on average two to seven times faster in Iraq compared to other countries.

“The rain seasons in 2020 and 2021 were the driest of in 40 years, which subsequently resulted in the decrease of the water flow in Tigris and Euphrates Rivers by 29 percent and 73 percent respectively,” Lootsma said.

According to the United Nations, Iraq is among the countries most vulnerable to climate change, including water and food insecurity. It is facing a severe water shortage because of reduced precipitation, higher temperatures, and waste and mismanagement. The crisis is worsened by upstream dams in Turkey and Iran that have led to a significant decrease in the volume of water entering the country.

In March, Lootsma said that he was worried that at least for this summer, more sandstorms will occur in Iraq and Kurdistan Region, stressing the necessity of planting a great number of trees to control the sandstorms and calling for taking “urgent actions” for the country to move towards renewable energy.

Growing desertification is caused by the climate crisis, unregulated land and water use, and reduced flows in the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers due to dams upstream. Dozens of sandstorms last summer sent thousands of people to hospitals in Iraq and Kurdistan Region.

Iraq’s President Abdul Latif Rashid and Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani have repeatedly addressed the challenges presented by the country’s water crisis and warned against the mismanagement of water resources.

At a climate conference in Basra in March, Sudani announced a plan to plant five million trees to combat desertification. Private Banks are footing the bill for half a million of the trees.

Last week, a spokesman of the Iraqi water resources ministry told Rudaw that the country's water reserves are at the "lowest" in country's history, having reduced to almost half of last year’s amount.

Iraq’s capital city of Baghdad hosted its third international water conference titled “Water Scarcity, the Mesopotamian Marshes, Shatt al-Arab Environment, Everyone's Responsibility” to discuss growing threats of drought and water scarcity, the effects of climate change, and ways to address such environmental issues.