ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraq is suffering under the “extreme” impact of climate change as it endures its hottest and driest year in nearly a century, an advisor to the prime minister told Rudaw on Thursday.
"This year saw the lowest rainfall and the hottest in the past 90 years. The impact of climate change on Iraq is at its most extreme," said Torhan al-Mufti, advisor on water affairs to Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani.
He said that since 2003, subsequent Iraqi governments were "preoccupied with security issues, and the Iraqi state did not anticipate such a drought."
Iraq depends heavily on the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, both originating in Turkey and with watersheds that extend into Iran.
Mufti said Turkey and Iran are also suffering from drought, but the impact on Iraq is doubled.
"Iraq is affected twice: once by our own existing drought and once by damage of climate change itself. When Iran and Turkey suffer from drought, or in other words, water shortages, they take their share…," he said.
Large Turkish dam projects, including the Southeastern Anatolia Project (GAP), have significantly reduced water flow to Iraq, worsening drought, desertification, and environmental degradation. Currently, Iraq receives less than 40 percent of its historical water share.
This week, Baghdad officially called on Ankara to increase water releases in the Euphrates and Tigris rivers by one billion cubic meters per month during October and November. The request follows a draft agreement reached last Friday between Iraqi and Turkish diplomats on sharing water resources.
Iran has also heavily dammed shared rivers. The absence of comprehensive water-sharing agreements with its neighbors leaves Iraq vulnerable to unilateral upstream actions that threaten its water security.
The World Resources Institute lists Iraq among 25 countries facing “extreme water stress,” meaning it uses over 80 percent of its available water resources - making it highly vulnerable to drought.