Water woes multiply in Iraq and the greater region

UN Special Rapporteur calls off trip to Syria

Journalists and international experts are frequently denied independent access to water-scarce and conflict-affected areas, rendering it exceedingly arduous to obtain reliable information.

Across Iraq's western border, much of Syria remains a black hole for information. Reports on issues affecting the population are often distorted for political and other purposes by those in charge of the fragmented, war-mutilated country.

An 11 July press release noted: "The UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation, Pedro Arrojo-Agudo, was compelled to cancel his visit to the Syrian Arab Republic set to begin on 9 July, citing a lack of full cooperation by the Government."

"Arrojo-Agudo's visit would have provided the first opportunity for an independent UN expert to examine first-hand the conditions of water and sanitation facilities in various locations and analyse challenges and positive practices on access to these rights," the UN press release added.

It went on to note that "when governments invite UN Special Rapporteurs to visit, they are required to guarantee and facilitate their freedom to choose whom to meet and where to travel".

"Despite my continued efforts, I regret that the authorities have failed to provide information and make steps necessary to allow the visit to take place," Arrojo-Agudo said.

A 23 May Nature Communications report meanwhile noted that the "water footprint of refugee displacement increased by nearly 75% globally between 2005 and 2016", pointing out that "refugees may have contributed up to 75 percentage points to water stress in Jordan."

"Abandonment of irrigated agriculture in southern Syria during the recent civil war caused a near doubling of river flow volumes into downstream Jordan, suggesting that the impact of armed conflicts on water resources can propagate beyond borders along international waterways."

"This effect on water availability is only half of the story, however, because the conflict also caused at least 1.1 million Syrian refugees to flee across the border into Jordan, adding pressure to the country's already scarce water resources," it added.

Such an increase in competition for dwindling resources cannot but create tensions with the local population.

Water likely to lead to more conflict barring urgent action

Water disputes often led to conflicts large and small across the region.

In June 2011, "gunmen broke into Faisal Hassan's west Baghdad home killing him, his wife and their two young children. The motive was not sectarian, political or even economic - but water-related," according to a report produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

The father was, the report added, the third irrigation department employee to be killed in the Abu Ghraib area west of Baghdad in that period. The department, the report noted, "supervised government water distribution to farmland in and around" the area.

In 2008, according to a report that cited International Committee for the Red Cross data, many Iraqis spent "one-third of their income on purchasing potable water".

Over a decade later, in 2021, the Norwegian Refugee Council found that families in Iraq "regularly spend up to $80 a month to purchase potable drinking water". The average monthly salary in the country is reportedly $515 while the minimum wage is $181.

Larger conflicts over water seem to be brewing in countries neighbouring Iraq as well. On Iran's eastern border, armed clashes have occurred in recent months with the Taliban that are also linked to water supplies.

Iran has in recent years meanwhile drastically reduced water flows from its side of the border into Iraq.

In April 2022, Iraq's water minister at the time was quoted by the Al Arabiya news channel as having said that Iran had cut off 90% of its water tributaries flowing into Iraq, leading to a 20% drop in Iraq's total water resources. The ministry threatened to take legal action against Iran.

Transboundary issues and terrorist groups

Multiple conferences have attempted to bring together representatives from a wide variety of countries in the region and beyond to discuss these issues and foster greater collaboration.

Al Majalla spoke to the head of the water department at Somalia's water and energy resources ministry, Ali Mohamud Hersi, at the Third International Water Conference in Baghdad in May 2023 about water issues and the usefulness of bringing representatives from around the world to discuss the issue in the Iraqi capital in terms of furthering cooperation. 

In an emailed response to follow-up questions, he noted to Al Majalla that "Somalia has engaged in various transboundary water collaborations with neighbouring countries. The most notable collaboration is with Ethiopia through the Joint River Basin Organization" where "collaboration includes information sharing, joint monitoring, and the development of agreements to ensure the equitable use and conservation of transboundary waters."

He noted that "recent instability in Ethiopia" had negatively affected Somalia.

"The disruption of trade routes and cross-border movements may have impacted the availability of water resources in certain regions," and "the displacement of people from Ethiopia to Somalia due to the conflict may have put additional pressure on water resources in host communities."

Moreover, the "conflict with al-Shabaab has significant implications for the country's water resources. Al-Shabaab has targeted water infrastructure, such as wells and water distribution systems, causing damage and disruptions in water supply to communities and the conflict has resulted in population displacement," he told Al Majalla.

Convention signed but 'long-term agreement' unlikely anytime soon

In March, Iraq became the first Arab nation to join the UN Water Convention.

Former Iraqi water minister Hassan al-Janabi told Al Majalla that he and his colleagues had put forth a great deal of effort to join the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) Water Convention (Helsinki 1992) "well before its opening to global membership in its 6th meeting in Rome back in 2012."

He noted that at that time he had been "Iraq's Permanent Representative to the UN agencies in Rome, and when I became a member of the Iraqi Cabinet we took the decision to join the convention in 2017 and then the Iraqi Parliament ratified the accession afterwards."

He added that this was very much in Iraq's interest to have a "presence in a global platform with a permanent secretariat and good track record of resolving transboundary water conflicts based in international principles of water law."

On the issue of Turkey and the sharing of the water of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, Janabi told Al Majalla that "I managed to develop and sustain a high level of confidence and trust with my Turkish counterparts in discussing transboundary water issues in a very constructive way" during his term as Iraq's ambassador to Turkey in 2019-2020.

He said that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan "himself asked me to work hard with his Special Envoy for Water to Iraq" and that he and the Turkish envoy had "developed a road map for bilateral cooperation".

Janabi added that he had "wanted to pave the way for a long-term agreement with Turkey in which the interests of Iraq, as well as Turkish interests, are preserved and respected" but that even now "our aim of signing a long-term water sharing agreement is still a remote possibility."

"But technical cooperation with Turkey is a good way to move forward," he said, in the meantime.

Agriculture and traditions play a major role

Worldwide, the biggest factor in an increasing lack of water is agriculture.

A March 2019 report by the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) noted that "agriculture is both a major cause and casualty of water scarcity. Farming accounts for almost 70 percent of all water withdrawals, and up to 95 percent in some developing countries."

It stressed as it has for decades in different reports, that a reduction in meat consumption is vital.

"Did you know that pulses crops have a small water footprint meaning that to produce 1kg of lentils we only need 1 250 litres of water? Compare this to the 13 000 litres of water we need to produce 1kg of beef," the UN report stated.

Any attempt to change longstanding dietary and other habits tends to be met with immense resistance, however.

A 2010 Guardian article entitled "Yemen threatens to chew itself to death over thirst for narcotic qat plant" noted that "the best solution, everyone agrees, is to reduce qat growing, which sucks up the largest share of water use. But this is also fraught with social and political problems because, in a country where half the population earn less than $2 a day, it provides many jobs."

A March 2023 report stressed that, in Yemen, "Dwindling groundwater resources directly threaten agricultural production because the sector accounts for 90 percent of water withdrawal, leaving municipal and industrial usage at 8 percent and 2 percent respectively."

It added that research done by Sana'a University had "found that about 70 -- 80 percent of conflicts in Yemen are over water. The poor and vulnerable, are usually trampled in these conflicts leaving them even more food and nutrition insecure."

"Women are not spared either as they bear the brunt of the food and nutrition insecurity resulting from water scarcity. Women and children walk long distances, foraging for water. They are also at the receiving end whenever a conflict over water breaks out."

For the entire Arab region and the rest of the world, that last line tends to hold true.