The Tiger ?
He no longer roars.
Due to the lack of rain but also to the dams built upstream, in Turkey, where it originates.
Droughts, falling rainfall, rising temperatures and galloping desertification: Iraq has become one of the five countries in the world most exposed to the consequences of climate change, says the United Nations.
More water, more agriculture
Iraqi authorities and Kurdish farmers accuse Turkey of withholding water from dams built upstream.
The official statistics show it well: the level of the Tigris, when it arrives from Turkey, is this year only 35% of the average quantity that flowed into Iraq over the past 100 years.
The more the water is retained, the more its flow is reduced and the less it flows into Iraq.
In Fichkhabour, "our life depends on the Tiger", explains Pibo Hassan Dolmassa, a 41-year-old farmer.
“All our work, our agriculture, depends on it.
“But” for two or three years “, it does not go any more.
"Day by day, the water is decreasing," he notes, whereas "before, the water flowed in torrents."
“We are going to be displaced because of the lack of water”
This year, due to the drought, the authorities have halved the cultivated areas throughout the country, and in particular in Diyala.
"We will be forced to abandon agriculture and sell our animals," says Abou Mehdi, a 42-year-old farmer.
“We were displaced by the war” against Iran in the 1980s “and now we are going to be displaced because of the lack of water.
Without water, we absolutely cannot live in these areas,” he says.
By the end of March 2022, more than 3,300 families had been displaced by "climatic factors" in ten central and southern provinces, according to a report published in August by the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
