One in two families in need of food assistance due to drought in Iraq

 
A family of two needs food assistance due to drought in Iraq

December 16, 2021

An Iraqi family of two needs food assistance in drought-affected areas in Iraq, as a report by the NGO "Norwegian Refugee Council", published Thursday, showed, noting that these "extreme conditions" forced many to flee.

According to a survey on which the report was based, of 2,800 families from several regions from northern Iraq to its south, “one out of every two families in drought-affected areas needs food assistance… while one in five families does not have enough food for all family members".

Climate change is the main cause of drought in Iraq, in which temperatures rise to more than fifty sometimes in summer, as well as human factors.

With the decline in rain and drought, Iraq has become the "fifth country in the world" most affected by climate change, according to what the Iraqi Ministry of Environment announced recently.

The report stated that "over the past few years, drought conditions, rising temperatures and decreasing rainfall have reflected the increasing risk of climate change in Iraq," adding that "the flow of water from upstream countries has also declined."

The report stated that "these extreme conditions have forced people to leave their homes, exacerbating the displacement crisis in Iraq." Among the respondents, 300 displaced families and 1,500 families of returnees.

Of those surveyed, “one in 15 families reported to the Norwegian Refugee Council that a family member had migrated in the last 30 days in search of work and income. Many of them had already been displaced at least once, or had just returned home,” as stated in the report.

These conditions affect those aged 15 to 24 years in particular, according to the report, which indicated that "45 percent of them have left their farming communities in search of a job in towns and cities, while 38 percent have lost their job."

The Iraqi authorities had announced in mid-October that drought and lack of water would force Iraq to reduce its agricultural area by half in the winter season 2021-2022.

Water is a major issue in this oil-rich country of 40 million people, due to increasingly severe droughts and low precipitation rates.

The report noted that the outlook for 2022 is "alarming, as persistent water shortages and drought conditions are likely to destroy the upcoming agricultural season."

He warned that this could increase "family reliance on purchased water in addition to resorting to poor hygiene practices, which could lead to disease outbreaks."

According to the report, there are "indications of waves of displacement that occur amid water scarcity, income losses and high food prices in agricultural communities."

In August, several NGOs warned that 7 million people are at risk of deprivation of water due to lack of access to rivers or due to drought.

The World Bank warned last month that a temperature increase of one degree Celsius and a decrease in rainfall in Iraq by 10 percent would lead to a 20 percent decrease in available fresh water by 2050, adding that a third of irrigated agricultural land would then be deprived of water.

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