Areas of the Tigris River bed appeared in Iraq after the water level dropped to an unprecedented extent, which prompted citizens to play a football game in it in order to highlight the scale of the disaster.
On Thursday, local platforms published videos showing a number of citizens ascending to the bottom of areas of the river due to a sharp decrease in the water level between the Adhamiya and Kadhimiya regions of Baghdad.
The video documented a natural movement of citizens, who appeared to have crossed to the middle of the river with boats anchored on its banks, to highlight the low level of the Tigris River, which originates from Turkey in the north and flows into the Shatt al-Arab in the south, reaching a very disturbing level.
The circulating scene angered a number of platform pioneers, who criticized the government's measures to confront the catastrophe of rivers drying up and the continuous decline in water levels for years.
Tweeters denounced the inability of penalized governments to build water dams to store rainwater and release it in periods of drought or high temperatures to preserve the vitality of the river.
Publisher Saif Al-Ali wrote on Facebook, "Since the emergence of the so-called new Iraq in 2003, no water dam has been constructed.
For years, Iraq has witnessed a significant decrease in the water level of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, which resulted in the drying up of some lakes and secondary rivers, while the Ministry of Water Resources attributes the reasons to Iran and Turkey (upstream countries) cutting off water supplies to Iraq.
Iraq.. Features of severe drought
Iraq is one of the five countries most vulnerable to climate change and desertification in the world, especially due to the increasing drought with high temperatures that exceed 50 degrees Celsius during the summer.
The repercussions of this have begun to be evident in several joints, such as the decline in the cultivation of wheat and amber rice, the drying up of some lakes due to the lack of water supplies and rain, and the frequent dust storms.
The total consumption rate for all needs in Iraq is about 53 billion cubic meters annually, while the amount of river water in good seasons is estimated at about 77 billion cubic meters, and in dry seasons about 44 billion cubic meters.
Experts estimate the amount of water reserves in Iraq at less than 5 billion cubic meters, of which 3 billion are dead stocks that cannot be used, and the live stock used is only two billion. Salty and polluted, not suitable for agriculture.
The Haditha Dam and Tharthar Lake suffer from the problem of evaporation, which causes Iraq to lose 10 billion cubic meters of water annually, which is equivalent to a third of the water resources of about 34 billion cubic meters.
According to the "Water Stress Index" projections, Iraq will be a land without rivers by 2040, and the two great rivers will not reach the final mouth in the Persian Gulf.
The study adds that in the year 2025, the features of severe drought will be very clear throughout the country, with the Euphrates River almost completely drying up to the south, and the Tigris River turning into a watercourse with limited resources.
Source : Al Jazeera + Sanad Agency + social media sites
