Iraq's mighty Tigris drying up due to human activity, climate change

Iraq may be oil-rich but the country is plagued by poverty after decades of war and by droughts and desertification Baghdad, Iraq: It was the river that is said to have watered the biblical Garden of Eden and helped give birth to civilisation itself. But Turkey’s ambassador to Iraq, Ali Riza Guney, urged Iraq to “use the available water more efficiently”, tweeting in July that “water is largely wasted in Iraq”. And the International Organization for Migration said last month that “climate factors” had displaced more than 3,300 families in Iraq’s central and southern areas in the first three months of this year. Ecological awareness also remains low among the general public, said activist Hajer Hadi of the Green Climate group, even if “every Iraqi feels climate change through rising temperatures, lower rainfall, falling water levels and dust storms”. “The sea water rises and comes here.” Last month local authorities reported that salt levels in the river north of Basra reached 6,800 parts per million – nearly seven times that of fresh water.