DIYALA, Iraq – With drought and a lack of rainfall ravaging the country, Lake Hamrin, which once used to supply 80 percent of water to the people of Diyala province, has almost completely dried up.
Around 150,000 acres of farmland in the Hamrin area in northeastern Diyala province are on the brink of desertification, a dangerous development that may force myriads of locals to abandon their regions and seek work elsewhere in urban areas, according to local authorities.
"There was a lot of water here in the past that would reach the residential areas, and the sheep would drink water close to the households. The water has vanished and the sheep are thirsty. Nothing is left behind," Ali Jasim, a young shepherd, told Rudaw's Halkawt Aziz over the weekend.
Lake Hamrin is situated 55 kilometers northeast of Diyala's capital of Baqubah on the Alwand River. The water basin was opened in 1981 to protect the province from seasonal floods, soon becoming a strategic water reservoir in Diyala and capable of holding 2.4 billion cubic meters of water.
"By God, we have lost all we had in possession. You can no longer find a single farmer in this region because the lake has dried up. We used to make a living out of this water," said farmer Mohanad Khalid
Iraq's lakes are drying at an alarming rate. The country's second-largest lake, known as Milh or Razzaza lake, completely dried up in February.
Iraq's water resources ministry has previously warned that the country's water reserves have halved since last year.
Water levels in the Euphrates and Tigris rivers – shared by Iraq, Syria, and Turkey – have dropped considerably in recent years. In the latest stark warning of the threats a heating climate poses to the country, a report by Iraq's Ministry of Water Resources late last year predicted that unless urgent action is taken to combat declining water levels and climate change, Iraq's two main rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates, will be completely dry by 2040.
Water scarcity is a severe issue in Iraq. The country is the fifth-most vulnerable nation to the effects of climate change, including water and food insecurity, according to the UN, yet it is lagging behind its neighbors when it comes to a plan to protect its water resources.
The effects of low rainfall in Iraq have been exacerbated as the levels of the country's two main rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates, drop due to upstream damming in neighboring Iran and Turkey.
Reporting by Halkawt Aziz
