“There is a misconception in Iran that most of the problems in Iraq are coming from damming Euphrates and the Tigris [rivers], I don’t think that they understood that their rivers also contribute a lot,” Majed Abu Zreig, director of Jordan University of Science and Technology’s Water Diplomacy Center (WDC), told Rudaw English on the sidelines of the Baghdad International Water Conference.
“However, the misconception now is growing smaller and the Iraqi voices get louder,” he said, arguing that this will bring both countries closer to a water agreement.
Abu Zrieg said that Iraq needs to continue negotiating with Iran in order to reach an understanding regarding increasing its share of water, stating that the two neighbors are taking small steps towards a water agreement.
Iraq and Iran share a number of rivers, and access to these vital resources has been a source of friction in the past, including to the point of becoming a contributing factor in the bloody war fought between the two countries in the 1980s.
Over the years, Iran has dammed the Karun River, a tributary of the Shatt al-Arab river in southern Iraq, as well as rivers flowing into the Kurdistan Region, adding to Iraq’s water shortages caused by dams in Turkey, low precipitation levels due to climate change, water mismanagement and pollution.
Baghdad and Ankara signed a strategic water agreement last week during Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s visit to Iraq. Bassem al-Awadi, spokesperson for the Iraqi government, told Rudaw at the time that the agreement would help resolve the water crisis in the country.
“The Turkish side understood fully the problems of Iraq, and how many factors contributed to [water] shortages on the Iraqi side,” Abu Zreig said, adding that due to water shortages resulting from climate change in the region, now Ankara has a better understanding of the Iraqi position and is ready to engage in more “fruitful” discussions to release more water to the Iraqi side.
Iraq’s water problems are exacerbated by Turkish and Iranian damming of rivers that flow into Iraq. The water resources minister said in an interview with Rudaw in February that per an agreement with Ankara, the Turkish government is “required to release 500 cubic meters of water per second as a minimum, and of this 260 cubic meters should reach Iraq.”
Awadi said that a joint Iraqi-Turkish fund that Iraq will deposit oil money in will be created, with the money then being invested in projects such as dams, canals, power generation, and pumping stations.
Iraq is among the nations most vulnerable to the effects of climate change, including water and food insecurity. The United Nations Environment Program has warned that water shortages threaten the long-term stability of Iraq’s agriculture and industry.
Water levels in the Euphrates and Tigris rivers - vital waterways shared by Iraq, Syria, and Turkey - have dropped considerably in recent years and in 2022 Iraq’s Ministry of Water Resources predicted that unless urgent action is taken, these two rivers will be dry by 2040.