Iran, Syria, Iraq face escalating drought, water emergency – Report
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – Countries in West Asia – specifically Iran, Iraq and Syria – have been grappling with an unprecedented three-year drought since the boreal winter of 2020, said an analysis by World Weather Attribution on Wednesday.
The severe lack of rainfall coupled with elevated temperatures has had dire consequences, severely impacting agriculture and access to clean water.
The region heavily relies on rain-fed agriculture, particularly wheat farming and livestock rearing. While annual rainfall exhibits variability, this drought stands out as the second-worst recorded, primarily driven by escalating temperatures.
The timing of the drought, the study found, coincided with other socio-economic challenges, such as the ongoing conflict in Ukraine affecting energy and food prices, as well as political unrest, exacerbating the drought’s impact.
Scientists from Iran, the Netherlands, the UK, and the US conducted a comprehensive assessment using published peer-reviewed methods to understand the extent and severity of the three-year drought in two key regions: the fertile crescent, covering Iraq and Syria, and Iran. The study focused on agricultural drought, which combines rainfall estimates with evaporation.
The findings reveal that the drought has had a devastating impact on a vulnerable population already facing fragility, conflict, and rapid urbanization. Both the Euphrates and Tigris basin and large parts of Iran experienced extreme and exceptional agricultural drought, making it the second-worst drought on record in both regions, according to the report.
Alarmingly, events of comparable severity are projected to occur every decade given the current climate, which has already warmed by 1.2 °C due to fossil fuel emissions.
The study also identified a strong pattern towards more severe droughts in both regions using three different observations-based data products. Furthermore, it established that human-induced climate change has significantly intensified the likelihood and intensity of such droughts. In fact, the observed drought conditions in the current 1.2 °C warmer world would not even be classified as a drought in a cooler climate.
Unless urgent action is taken to curtail fossil fuel consumption, the study said, such drought events will become even more frequent in the future. In a world that is 2 °C warmer than preindustrial levels, events like this would be categorized as exceptional droughts, representing the most severe classification.
The water stress in the region is further compounded by technical limitations, inadequate water management, and lack of regional cooperation. Population growth, industrialization, land-use changes, and inefficient irrigation practices have contributed to the complex water crisis, according to the report. In addition, water systems have become targets of sabotage during conflicts, exacerbating the situation.