Iraq's Water: Another Threat in Paradise?
IRAQ depends on the Tigris and Euphrates rivers for drinking water, supplying industry and irrigating massive swathes of farmland. The two rivers account for 98% of the country’s surface water. Until recently the government’s greatest concern has been the fact that the source of neither river is in the country. In the past few decades dams and diversions across Turkey and Syria have steadily reduced the quantity of water reaching Iraq.
Now Iraq has a greater concern. Both waterways flow through areas of northern Iraq controlled by the Islamic State (IS), an extremist group that grew out of al-Qaeda in Iraq and today claims an area the size of Jordan straddling Syria and Iraq. On August 8th America began air strikes against the group, after IS carried out a series of attacks that targeted minorities including Christians and Yazidis and threatened the semi-autonomous northern area of Kurdistan. In one of those attacks, on August 7th, IS took control of Mosul dam.
After targeting oil fields in Syria and Iraq, IS may now have its sights trained on water. Mosul is not the only dam for which IS has fought. After taking large parts of Iraq in a campaign that started in Mosul, the country's second largest city, in June, on August 1st IS battled to take control of Haditha dam on the Euphrates in the eastern province of al-Anbar. The fighters were repelled by Iraqi troops and Sunni tribes, but reports suggest the offensive continues.
IS may want to control these resources in order to bolster its claim to run a state. But it may have additional motives. Baghdad and southern Iraq rely on water being released from these dams. So IS could cut off the water, limiting flows to Baghdad and the south or, conversely, release large amounts that could cause floods (although this would also flood areas controlled by IS, including Mosul city, south of the dam).
Any change in water flows would also affect the availability of food, because Iraq is heavily dependent on irrigation to grow wheat, barley, rice, corn and fruit and vegetables. IS has already taken control of a number of government wheat-storage sites in Ninewa, Kirkuk and Salaheddin provinces. Some reports suggest that it is using these to supply flour to residents in the provinces north of Baghdad who are now cut off from a public programme that distributes flour, rice, sugar, and sunflower oil. Others reckon IS will sell the wheat—like it has oil—to local mills, bakers and farmers to generate additional funds. Read on ...
