Climate change erases Iraq's heritage

Sandstorms follow one another with increasing frequency, causing victims and thousands of hospitalizations. Water reserves have collapsed by 50% compared to last year. By 2040 Tigris and Euphrates risk drying up. The emblematic case of Lake Sawa. Archeological sites and historical cities, from Ur to Babylon, in danger. 

Milan (AsiaNews) - Iraq, which stretches along what was once known as ancient Mesopotamia or the Fertile Crescent, a land bathed by the Tigris and the Euphrates and rich in resources, is today an emblematic mirror of the crisis linked to climate change. From rising temperatures to the drying up of reserves, to the sandstorms that hit with increasing frequency - also sparking a health emergency - the problems add up with increasing intensity.

In a few weeks thousands of hospitalizations and at least one victim have been registered due to the waves of dust and sand that have covered the capital and other areas of the country, with repercussions on transport and repeated closures of Baghdad International Airport. For meteorologists and experts, the phenomenon has increased so far unprecedented and is likely to increase in the near future due to drought, desertification and the collapse of rainfall, now at historic lows. Already in 2016 UN experts from the Environmental Program (Unep) had predicted up to 300 events per year related to dust and sandstorms.

In addition to Baghdad, the emergency affected six of the country's 18 provinces, particularly al-Anbar and the holy city of Najaf, which, like the capital, was covered by a ghostly blanket of orange clouds that darkened the sky for a long time. The spokesman of the Iraqi Ministry of Health Seif al-Badr has spoken of more than 5 thousand requests for intervention. At least 700 were rescued in the province of al-Anbar, more than 300 in the central province of Salaheddin, at least a hundred between Diwaniya and Najaf.

Rich in oil, and although it can count on the presence of the two great Middle Eastern rivers, Iraq is one of the world's five nations most vulnerable to climate change and desertification, which put in serious danger crops and food security. For experts, the danger of a "social and economic disaster" is real, while a report last November by the World Bank spoke of a collapse of more than 20% of water resources by 2050, with devastating consequences for the 41 million inhabitants. 

The water crisis

"Water reserves are at a much lower level than last year, a value of about 50% because of low rainfall and because of the quantities coming from neighboring nations," warns Ministry of Water Resources advisor Aoun Diab. Speaking to Afp he says they represent more than a wake-up call amid "continuous years of drought: 2020, 2021, 2022." The water levels of the Tigris and Euphrates - rivers shared with Iraq, Syria and Turkey - have dropped significantly in recent years and, if no action is taken, both will be almost completely dried up by 2040, according to the Ministry of Water Resources.

Another element of concern is "water pollution related to the sewage system, factories and laboratories, up to hospital waste" which is at critical levels, according to the ministry spokesman Ali Radi. There is also the activity of nations in the area such as Iran, accused by Minister Mahdi Rashid al-Hamdani last year of digging tunnels and trying to alter the flow of water, while a lawsuit against Tehran at the International Court of Justice is being studied.

Meanwhile, the government is studying a plan to reduce winter crops by 50% in irrigated areas. There is also the legacy of wars fought over the years, mismanagement of resources and corruption: all elements that have influenced, in various ways, to raise the level of criticality, so that today investments of billions of euros are needed to respond to the emergency. According to the World Bank, "the current state of infrastructure has led" to a rise in salinity that today "affects about 60% of cultivated land" with a "30-60% reduction in yield". The current political stalemate has blocked the budget for the current year; there is also inadequate pollution regulation, poor management of existing resources and inefficient farming methods.

Lake Sawa

The basin is unique in Iraq and is characterized by a particular salinity value, the highest in the country. Located near the Euphrates River, a little more than 20 km west of the city of al-Saramawa, it has neither tributaries nor emissaries, but draws water from the river through a structured system of articulated cracks that channel the water into the underlying aquifers. In the past, the level fluctuated in the alternation of dry and wet seasons, but it never really dried up thanks to the delicate balance between supply and evaporation. However, the situation has changed dramatically in the current year, to the point of causing its near total disappearance. Today, on a sandy surface sprinkled with salt, only a miserable pond remains where tiny fish swim, thanks to a spring that connects what remains of the lake to an underground water table.

Once over five kilometers wide, since 2014 it has begun the process of drying out due to "climate change and rising temperatures," as Youssef Jabbar, head of the Environmental Department of the province of Muthana, explains. Hotels and tourist facilities, abandoned, date back to the 1990s  when the basin was surrounded by sandy shores and was a popular destination for newlyweds and families to swim or picnic.

"This year, for the first time," confirms environmentalist Husam Subhi, "the lake has disappeared," and over 1,000 wells dug illegally to support agriculture in the area have also contributed to the disaster. Lake Sawa is not the only one in Iraq facing the dangers of drought and climate change. Social media is full of images of dry land or cracks caused by drought, from the Howiza marshes in the south, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, to Lake Milh in the central province of Karbala.

Migration and cultural heritage

The water crisis is one of the drivers of internal migration, as farmers and herders are forced to abandon land and waterways that can no longer support crops and livestock. According to estimates by the International Organization for Migration, in 2019 alone, more than 20,000 Iraqis abandoned their homes and lands due to a lack of clean water. The crisis in reserves has repercussions in the agricultural sector, oil, implies the purchase of goods abroad and impacts the domestic economy, with an increase in prices and inflation.

Without significant changes, Iraqi GDP could decrease by 4% according to the World Bank. Finally, sandstorms, lack of water and increased salinity risk causing serious damage to the cultural heritage, with effects on artefacts, monuments and antiquities. From Ur of the Chaldeans to legendary Babylon explains Augusta McMahon, professor of Mesopotamian archaeology at Cambridge University, their loss "will cause gaps in our knowledge of human evolution, the development of early cities, the management of empires, and dynamic changes in the political landscape of the Islamic era."

Salt in the ground can help archaeologists in some circumstances, but the mineral itself can also be devastating and destroy heritage. Meanwhile, rising sea water levels could lead to much of the South being submerged in less than 30 years. "Imagine," points out geo-archaeologist Jaafar Jotheri, a professor at al-Qadisiyah University, "that within 10 years most of our sites could be covered by a blanket of salt water. An already real danger in Babylon, a UNESCO heritage site, where a veil of salt covers mud bricks from 2600 years ago. In the temple of Ishtar, the Sumerian goddess of love and war, the walls are crumbling.

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