After Syria... A severe water crisis in Iraq, caused by Turkey and Iran

MP parliament, Aboud Al-Issawi, called to resolve this sensitive and complex" the issue to urge the political forces that have strong relationship with Tehran and Ankara to move towards them in order to prevent the impending crisis.

Al-Issawi talked to Al-Sumaria Channel that the water issue affects national and economic security, threating the lives thousands of civilians and is considered one of the complicated issues in which there are accumulations from previous governments up to the current government, and everyone bears responsibility for the current situation, and no party can be exempt from this responsibility."

And the Iraqi Minister of Water Resources, Mahdi Al-Hamdani, said earlier this month that the scarcity of rainfall has led to a decrease in the flow of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers to 50 percent compared to last year.

However, natural factors are not the only factors in the decline in water in Iraq, as the overexploitation by both Turkey and Iran of river water originating from their territories has exacerbated the problem from year to year.

Earlier, Turkey deliberately confiscated large quantities of the Euphrates water from the Syrians as well, as the water supply was estimated at 200 cubic meters per second over the past three months until now.

Syria's share of the incoming is 500 cubic metres per second, of which Iraq receives 60 percent, according to the tripartite agreements between Turkey, Syria and Iraq in 1987.

With this new rate, the water of the Euphrates River is subject to further decrease and flow, and thus both Syria and Iraq will face a real disaster as Turkey continues to block the water.

T/S

ANHA