No country has been left unscathed by climate change. However, some countries feel its staggering impacts more acutely. Iraq’s climate is drastically changing, from record high temperatures in the summer to record low rainfalls in the winter. Desertification, water scarcity, and other impacts of climate change require immediate action. The Iraqi Federal Government and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) have tried to adapt to these conditions by implementing policies to combat water scarcity and desertification.

However, the combination of political tensions and individual community needs coupled with a constantly changing and worsening climate makes these policies difficult to implement. To address the full-scale climate crisis and water scarcity in particular, the KRG and the Iraqi Federal government must prioritize collaboration over regionalization. Access to fresh water is a fundamental human right. To prioritize all citizens of Iraq and the Kurdistan Region, the two powers must implement policies that prioritize equitable water access.

This policy brief suggests that the Iraqi Federal Government and the KRG increase funding to improve water infrastructure in the Kurdish regions to prevent pollution and water waste. Moreover, to improve collaboration, the KRG should not continue to build more dams in its region.

The water scarcity crisis is exacerbated by domestic and international tensions regarding water resources. The Tigris and Euphrates rivers and their tributaries account for “more than 70 percent of the freshwater” in Iraq. Iran and Turkey exercise increased control over both rivers and their tributaries, leaving Iraq dependent on both for water access. The Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) heavily depends on the Lower Zab and Sirwan Rivers, tributaries of the Tigris, for drinking water, irrigation, fishing, and industrial use. Iran has built dams in the Lower Zab, Diyala, and Karkeh rivers which significantly reduces water supply to several regions in Iraq and causes further environmental degradation.

Moreover, Turkey’s Southeastern Anatolia Development Project (GAP), which proposes building 22 dams, 19 hydropower plants, schemes for irrigating 1.7 million hectares of land, and extensive drainage networks, requires exorbitant water resources, further depleting the water that the KRG and the Iraqi Federal Government will have access to. Turkey can undergo water projects like GAP because it has established itself as a primary water power in the region.  Turkey controls the largest sources of water from the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, meaning that other states in the region are beholden to Turkey for water access. Iraq holds very little negotiating power when it comes to water access and Turkey is able to steer water negotiations in its favor.

With Turkey and Iran controlling the majority of the water resources in the region, the Iraqi federal government and the KRG are left with minimal options to improve water access domestically. These authorities have developed different strategies to cope with the increased water scarcity. However, these strategies are complicated by poor water infrastructure and irrigation systems.

According to the Ministry of Municipalities and Tourism (MoMT), approximately 50 to 60 percent of drinking water is lost because of leakages in the pipes and “unauthorized private connections to the public water system.” The KRG also has several dams in its region. These dams are inefficient and lose a large portion of the saved water supply to evaporation. The Dukan Dam, which is the largest dam in the KRI, has a capacity of 6 billion cubic meters of water, but only holds 2 billion cubic meters because of evaporation and leakages. In the KRI, there have been 245 proposals for dams since 2014. As of 2021, 14 had already been built, 17 were being constructed, and 40 were in the development stages.

Both the KRG and the Iraqi Federal Government indicated interest in completing the construction of the Bekhme dam, which is projected to hold 17 billion cubic meters of water, but would lose approximately 480 million cubic meters of water annually due to evaporation. The Bekhme Dam is just one example of how large-scale dams are ineffective in combatting water scarcity in a country that is drastically losing its water supply.  Evaporation and leaks due to poor infrastructure prevent Iraq and the KRG from adequately storing enough water to provide for the diverse needs of people, agriculture, and infrastructure within Iraq.

Waste and contamination limit water access as well. According to the Kurdistan Regional Water Authority, approximately 10-20 % of wastewater is treated, while 80% of wastewater is untreated or partially treated. Untreated wastewater is also a threat to soil and agricultural production in the KRI.

Ineffective water storage systems combined with outdated water filtration and safety measures create a multi-dimensional water distribution issue in the KRI. Therefore, policies to combat water scarcity in the KRI and in other areas of Iraq must be multi-faceted, acknowledging the international and domestic dynamics that contribute to water scarcity and ineffective implementation of water distribution systems. The following recommendations offer multi-faceted approaches to the complex water shortages in Iraq and the KRI.

1. The KRG and the Iraqi Federal Government should suspend dam development and any future plans for dams and focus funding on improving existing water infrastructure.
2. The KRG and the Iraqi Federal Government should increase funding to mend any leakages in existing dams and pipes and treat wastewater to prevent it from contaminating fresh water supplies.
3. Both governments should collaborate with local communities to urge everyone to participate in water preservation. This can be done by:
   1. Encouraging every household to collect rainwater for non-potable water usage.
   2. Improving well systems for fresh water and providing guidelines for the safe amount of water usage and consumption in order to preserve the maximum amount of water resources in communities.
   3. Encouraging farmers to use drip irrigation tactics instead of flooding irrigation strategies to prevent excess use of water for agriculture.

These strategies could mobilize governments, communities, and individual households to conserve water resources and improve water infrastructure. In doing so, the Iraqi Federal Government and the KRG can assert themselves as leaders in water preservation in the region. Iraq is a state that has been heavily impacted by climate change and will continue to be. As water and other natural resources become increasingly scarce, it is imperative that the KRG and the Iraqi Federal Government collaborate now in order to set an example for how severely impacted states can effectively manage water crises.

Photo: Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin FRCP (Glasg), CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons