The United Nations office in Baghdad placed Iraq among the first five countries most affected by climate change, and ranked 39th among the countries most stressed by water, while official Iraqi statistics indicate that the rate of desertification in general has reached 69.7% of the total area of the country, which imposes great burdens on it. On the ecosystem in general.
To confront this reality, the Iraqi government has developed a set of ambitious plans, foremost of which is the “Afforestation” initiative aimed at combating desertification and dust storms, and it is classified as one of the most important government initiatives to confront climate deterioration and desertification that Iraq is suffering from.
Iraq intends, among many measures to reduce the phenomenon of desertification and the increase in dust storms, to create green belts around cities that will serve as a deterrent to dust storms.
The Baghdad Municipality announced the resumption of work on implementing the green belt project for the capital, after a 20-year hiatus, within an area of 940 acres west of the capital, which includes the planting of 120,000 trees, while the Central Bank of Iraq announced last year the launch of development initiatives to confront desertification and climate change in cooperation with ministries. And many government bodies and civil organizations as well.
Among other treatments, there is a return of interest in the issue of environmental control and the requirement that owners of industrial and service activities obtain environmental approvals approved by the Ministry of Environment, which require their commitment to environmental determinants and controls before granting them permission to establish factories or practice their work, and the implementation of some programs that contribute to supporting awareness and enhancing environmental culture. The owners of these activities have a positive impact on preserving and improving the environment.
The Ministry of Water Resources intends to build 36 small dams to harvest water during the next year, distributed among desert areas, as part of its plans to benefit from and store rainwater, anticipating good rainfall during the fall and winter seasons, according to Aoun Dhiyab Abdullah, Minister of Water Resources, who confirmed the intention to do so after… Completing the preliminary studies, designs and investigations for these dams next year, explaining that the sites of the dams to be constructed will be distributed between the Western Desert, the Samawa Valley, and the northern, southern and eastern regions of the country.
Another positive feature of civil society organizations in northern Iraq is the focus of activists from several environmental organizations on water conservation by encouraging projects to artificially recharge groundwater, reforestation, and decontaminate contaminated areas.
The Iraqi plans and initiatives came to confront the negative effects of climate change, most notably the dangers of drought, lack of vegetation cover, the spread of desertification, the lack of water supplies, rising pollution, and the movement of seawater up the river in southern Iraq, destroying 60,000 acres of agricultural land and 30,000 tree last year alone, which caused the disappearance of water reserves in lakes and bodies of water, while large lakes that were contributing to enhancing water reserves at the national level dried up, such as the Habbaniya lakes in the west and Sawa in the south, and stock levels decreased in the Tharthar Depression, which represents the largest storage area. Water in central Iraq, in addition to the drought of more than 80% of the marshes in the south, all of which was reflected in the decline in the per capita share of water from 5,900 cubic meters in 1977, to less than 240 cubic meters currently.
The Iraqi Ministry of Environment warned that Iraq loses 250,000 square meters of agricultural land annually due to drought, pointing out that the current water shortage has not reached Iraq for more than 70 years, noting that the water deficit will reach 11 billion cubic meters per year. Year 2035.
These factors and the phenomena arising from them caused a major imbalance in the biological balance in Iraq, a large population migration, especially in southern Iraq, a change in economic activities, serious impacts on the general health of the population, and other problems.
The Iraqi Ministry of Environment believes that strengthening participatory work between neighboring countries and the region will give more positive indicators and results in confronting the risks of climate change.
Nizar Amidi, Iraqi Minister of Environment, stressed the importance of participatory and solidarity work, explaining that all activities, governmental, popular, private sector and civil society organizations, must participate in confronting the repercussions of climate change in the country, stressing that the “COP 28” conference will focus on global and national efforts to mitigate the devastating effects. climate change and adaptation to its negative impacts.
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