[Salon] Iraq’s water crisis - Arab Digest.org. guest post

Iraq’s water crisis Summary: a country with one of the most severe shortages of potable water in the world is saddled with a corrupt and incompetent governance structure that has failed abysmally to provide its citizens with a clean and sustainable flow of that which is essential for life itself. We thank Winthrop Rodgers for today’s newsletter. A journalist and analyst who spent several years in Iraq’s Kurdistan Region, he focusses on politics, human rights, and economics. He tweets @wrodgers2. Iraq is facing a water disaster. Years of drought and the effects of climate change are compounded by the country’s rapid population growth and sprawling urban development. Upstreaming dam construction by Türkiye and Iran is restricting water flows, depriving Iraqi farms, businesses and residents of the water they need. The Kurdish areas of the country are relatively insulated from the more extreme effects by their position further upstream and higher levels of local precipitation. Yet even there, governance inadequacies in the Kurdistan Region are exacerbating an already severe water shortage situation. Erbil is a growing urban center, attracting workers from across the Kurdistan Region and central Iraq. Many of them have abandoned rural life because of the growing impact of climate change on agriculture. As the city has grown both in terms of its physical footprint and population, Erbil’s water supply and infrastructure have struggled to keep pace. Some water comes from the Ifraz pumping facility on the Great Zab River 30 kilometers northwest of the city, but its capacity is limited. Plans to expand the plant have not progressed. Over the past 20 years, the city has made up the difference by pumping water from underground but this has become an increasingly unsustainable practice. Wells are now dug 700 meters into the ground and some that are at 500 meters are already drying up, according to local officials. As a result there are chronic water shortages across the city, although the poorest neighbourhoods are disproportionately affected. Residents go for weeks without proper supplies and must resort to buying water from trucks to fill their roof-top tanks. Understandably, this is a situation that breeds resentment among the population. Small protests are a common occurrence in Erbil, with residents blocking traffic on major roads to draw attention to the issue. By 2035 Iraq will only be able to meet 15 percent of its water needs, the United Nations has warned [photo credit: Jassim Al Asadi] The local government, which is controlled by the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), is intolerant of public displays of criticism. The residents are cognisant of this and limit the duration of their demonstrations to avoid arrest and retaliation by the security forces. The water shortages have become a widely discussed topic in Erbil and fodder for opposition parties looking to embarrass the ruling KDP. Yet it is critical to note that this public pressure has not yet resulted in any new investment aimed at improving or diversifying Erbil’s water supply. Thirsty residents will likely face the same or worse conditions next year. Residents of the Kurdistan Region’s second largest city typically have enough water, thanks to the nearby Dukan reservoir. However they face a different challenge in the form of water-borne illnesses. On August 24 the local authorities announced that eight people had tested positive for cholera. Pollution from the city also flows downstream, rendering the Tanjaro River one of the most polluted waterways in Iraq. Last year residents of the town of Darbandikhan held a month-long sit-in protest demanding better quality-drinking water only to be met with promises that turned out to be empty. The problems in Erbil and Sulaymaniyah highlight the fact that there are no major water recycling plants in the Kurdistan Region to take greywater and sewage and turn it into useable water. This technology is widely used in many countries, including in the developing world, and would help to alleviate shortages and combat pollution and disease. On several occasions, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) signed agreements with foreign development agencies to build water processing plants but the plans ultimately were not implemented. Given the obvious need, the availability of foreign assistance and the relative simplicity of the technology involved, it is baffling that the government seems unable to make progress. Indeed, this is an excellent example of a pervasive conundrum regarding development across Iraq, both in federal areas and in the Kurdistan Region. Ordinary citizens daily face quality-of-life issues that may (or may not) require technically complex solutions but ones that can be understood and addressed with funding, expertise and political will. Policy papers are drawn up, conferences are held, think tanks think and politicians promise but in the end no progress is made. Several years later another attempt is organised with the same result. The problems are known, as are the solutions, but ordinary residents are left without resolution. In the case of Iraq’s water infrastructure, there are certainly things that are out of the control of policymakers. The country is extremely vulnerable to the effects of climate change, including prolonged droughts, desertification and increasing heat. This is a global problem that affects Iraq in a disproportionate way. It is nevertheless disheartening to see Iraqi and Kurdish leaders exhibit so little ambition to confront water issues. With the country’s vast oil wealth, one might assume that funding could be allocated for improved water infrastructure, including water recycling. However, poor public policy, corruption and a lack of attention divert resources. The cost of continued delay will only increase and while wealthy elites can secure reliable access to clean water, electricity and other services it is ordinary Iraqis who will suffer the most as these services become less and less available. And while most people can muddle through most service delivery failures, water is not one of them. Iraqi and Kurdish leaders should make serious efforts to address water shortages and climate change. They need to invest, as a matter of utmost urgency, in water recycling facilities and water conservation measures. Working with global specialists and Iraq’s homegrown experts, policymakers can and should update and implement the water management plans that have already been developed. Specific funding should be set aside in the budget and protected from the political fights and the corruption that undermine country-wide public policy. These are straightforward recommendations but given the greed and incompetence embedded in the country’s governance structures they are likely to prove difficult to put into practice. This is unfortunate; the alternative is a future of ever-increasing shortages and pollution with all that that entails: further outbreaks of water-borne diseases like cholera, rapid agricultural decline, economic insecurity and increasing instability as Iraq’s burgeoning population struggles to secure life-essential water.