Poverty, displacement and 300 storms

The Iraqi journalist, researcher, and Stavanger ICORN resident, Safaa Khalaf,  published an opinion piece in the Middle East Eye detailing the climate catastrophe growing in his home country. A combination of excessive heat and growing droughts has been hurting Iraq’s agricultural sector, the source of income for 20% of the labour market. These factors are compounded by ongoing armed conflict “[which] has led to environmental pollution and serious damage that has impacts on the economy, society and the individual”.

Despite a reality that is acknowledged by national authorities and international organizations alike, “climate violence” remains outside of the Iraqi government’s priorities. In the article, Khalaf writes:

Iraq’s sky now rains dust and pollutants. The land between the Tigris and the Euphrates no longer gets enough rain to save the country from droughts, which have devastated local communities and agricultural supply chains, spurring a tide of migration.

The situation has deteriorated rapidly over the past two decades, with Turkey and Iran restricting the flow of water via dams and other infrastructure. Water has effectively been transformed into a political tool, while sand and dust storms are becoming more frequent across Iraq; it has been estimated that the country could experience 300 such storms a year by 2023.

Today, as Iraq celebrates the centenary of its founding as a modern state, its ecosystem is on the verge of collapse. As water flows in rivers decline dramatically, Iraq is expected to become one of the world’s most water-stressed countries by 2040, with a forecast rating of 4.6 out of 5, indicating extremely high stress. At the same time, Iraq is contributing to global warming, with the International Energy Agency reporting that the country accounts for around eight percent of world methane emissions.

Iraq’s environment ministry has acknowledged the ongoing climate crisis, which threatens to make Iraq unliveable over the next two decades due to excessive heat, drought, scarcity of water reserves, desertification and loss of biodiversity - all of which are wreaking havoc on food security chains...

Read the full article in Middle East Eye here.

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