Baghdad conference tackles climate change, water scarcity

BAGHDAD, Iraq - The Iraqi capital brought together representatives of regional countries with academics and civil society representatives to discuss the mounting threats of climate change, water scarcity, and drought in the land between the rivers. 

“The Baghdad International Water Conference aims to be a gateway for joint cooperation on water resources,” Iraqi Water Resources Minister Aoun Diab said during the opening ceremony on Sunday, highlighting the goal to foster international collaboration on water-related challenges.

The fourth edition of the conference is taking place under the slogan “Towards a better water future - Together we can.”

The water resource ministers of Iraq, Iran, Palestine, Tunisia, Syria, and Jordan attended a symposium to discuss water management and Iraq’s water ministry signed several Memoranda of Understanding for joint cooperation with its Tunisian counterpart and the World Food Program (WFP).

Water is one of the main challenges facing Iraq today. The World Resources Institute places it among 25 countries that face extreme water stress, meaning that it is using over 80 percent of its available supply of water and is at risk of running out of water in case of any short-term drought.

Droughts are more frequent and longer. Water reserves have decreased by half since 2022 due to a combination of drought, lack of rainfall, and declining river levels, according to the water ministry. The devastating effects of climate change are exacerbated by Turkish and Iranian dams upstream on shared rivers.

The goal of the conference is to "come up with policies based on dialogues supervised by [local and international] organizations,” Sadeq al-Jawad, water resources advisor in the office of Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia' al-Sudani, told Rudaw English.

The conference features an exhibition of water and irrigation projects under construction. They range from pipelines to transport drinking water into the cities, to the utilization of the internet in the irrigation of crops.

Muhanad Abdulwahid Naif, a senior engineer at the ministry’s water studies center for the northern regions, showcased a project that uses the internet to control irrigation, which can be used by farmers across the country including the Kurdistan Region.

“The project gives a better ability to control the irrigation and the amount of water that you are using on your farm,” Naif said, adding that the project is best suited for the Kurdistan Region’s orchards.

Farmers in Iraq and the Kurdistan Region primarily rely on traditional methods of irrigation, either through manually watering the plants, or setting up a hose system across the farm connected to a water source.
 
Naif said that with their project a farmer can be in Baghdad and still able to water his farm in Mosul.

Fadi Dawood, a chief engineer at the water resources ministry’s general committee of irrigation and reclamation projects, showcased a project that “transforms the Basra open canal, to a closed pipe canal, the goal being providing clean drinking water to Basra city.”

On Saturday, Iraq announced a five-million-dollar project to revive the marshlands in Basra province.