Iraq's extreme temperatures a 'wake-up call' for world: UN

AFP
Wed, August 9, 2023 

A fishing boat is moored along a branch of the Euphrates River in Al-Hamza town near Hilla in central Iraq, where river water levels have fallen (Ahmad AL-RUBAYE)

Iraq's rising temperatures and protracted drought are a "wake-up call" for the world, United Nations human rights chief Volker Turk said in Baghdad on Wednesday.

Turk spoke to AFP during a visit to Iraq, which the UN says is one of the five countries in the world most touched by some effects of climate change.

Iraq has been experiencing its fourth consecutive summer of drought, and temperatures in parts of the country including the capital Baghdad, and in the far south, have been around 50 degrees Celsius (120 degrees Fahrenheit).

"Rising temperatures plus the drought, and the fact that the loss of diversity is a reality, is a wake-up call for Iraq and for the world," Turk said.

"When we look into the situation of these communities we look into our future," he added.

"The era of global boiling has come and here we can live it and see it on a daily basis," Turk said at the end of his four-day visit, echoing comments by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres last month.

Guterres had said: "The era of global warming has ended. The era of global boiling has arrived." He called for immediate and bold action, after scientists confirmed July was on track to be the hottest month in recorded history.

In addition to declining rainfall and rising temperatures, Iraqi authorities say upstream dam construction by Turkey and Iran has affected the volume of water in the Tigris and Euphrates rivers through Iraq.

In Iraq's far south, high salinity has harmed fishing in the Shatt al-Arab waterway, where the Tigris and Euphrates converge before spilling into the Gulf.

Turk, who visited the south, told a news conference that he was shown by community leaders and others "pictures of the lush date palm trees that -- just 30 years ago -- lined parts of the now dried-up Shatt al-Arab waterway".

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohamed Shia al-Sudani has vowed that battling climate change would be one of his priorities, but activists say little has been done.

Turk told the news conference there had been reports "of violence, intimidation and death threats against environmental activists" in Iraq.

One of them, engineer Jassim al-Assadi of Nature Iraq, the country's leading conservation group, was abducted for two weeks in February and held by armed men.

Iraq water crisis could have regional consequences, UN human rights chief warns

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk, speaks during a press conference in Baghdad, Iraq, Wednesday, Aug. 9, 2023. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)

QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA
Wed, August 9, 2023

BAGHDAD (AP) — The United Nations' human rights chief on Wednesday warned that Iraq's water crisis could affect other countries in the region.

Severe water shortages in Iraq because of climate change and government mismanagement have destroyed wheat and fruit harvests, and killed off fish and livestock. Humanitarian organizations have warned for years that drought and mismanagement could deprive millions of people of water from the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers, which also run through neighboring war-torn Syria.

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk made the comments at a news conference in Baghdad following a four-day visit to the Iraqi capital, the oil-rich southern city of Basra and Irbil in the northern semi-autonomous Kurdish region.

Basra, where the mouth of the two rivers meet, has been hit hardest by the water crisis, turning areas once fertile into desert and forcing water purification systems to shut down because of rising salinity.

“Just yesterday (Tuesday), the minister of water resources announced that water levels in Iraq are the lowest they have ever been," Türk said. ”What is happening here is a window into a future that is now coming for other parts of the world."

Türk said the country's climate crisis derives from a “toxic mix” of global warming and drought, poor water management, violence and “oil industry excesses.” He spoke about decades of draining marshlands in the country's south, saying restoration could be complicated, especially at a time of surging temperatures. He fears that this will worsen climate displacement and migration.

“Civil society actors spoke to me about the chronic pollution in Basra and the resulting health problems in the community, including high rates of cancer and other serious ailments," the U.N. human rights chief said,

He slammed ongoing lawsuits against journalists and activists talking about the matter, saying it has impacted freedom of expression, and reports of violence and threats against environmental activists.

Türk held meetings with Iraqi government and judicial officials, most notably Prime Minister Mohammed Al-Sudani, and Speaker Mohammed Al-Halbousi. They discussed a handful of human rights issues, including the death penalty, overcrowding in prisons, and the need for strengthening human rights institutions in the country.

“I have also called on the authorities to declare an official moratorium on the use of the death penalty in Iraq — where more than 11,000 people remain on death row,” he said.

___

Kareem Chehayeb contributed to this report from Beirut.