Iraqi Kurd farmers battle drought as Lake Dukan retreats

Iraqi Kurd farmers battle drought as Lake Dukan retreats

Dukan Dam and reservoir in Iraqi Kurdistan
Dukan Dam and reservoir in Iraqi Kurdistan. Photo: AHMAD AL-RUBAYE / AFP
Source: AFP

Farmers in Iraqi Kurdistan seeking to irrigate crops face seeing their economic lifeline slip away as the waters of Lake Dukan recede and dams upstream in Iran stem the flow.

Bapir Kalkani, who is also a trade unionist, farms near the picturesque lake but has seen marked changes over the past three years as Iraq suffers prolonged drought.

"There was water where I'm standing now" in 2019, the 56-year-old said. "It used to go three kilometres (two miles) further, but the level has retreated."

Sesame and beans are being grown on the plain under a blazing sun, adjacent to the lake which is fed by a Tigris tributary, the Lower Zab river which has its source in Iran.

Bapir Kalkani, an Iraqi Kurdish agricultural trade unionist, inspects his wheat farm
Bapir Kalkani, an Iraqi Kurdish agricultural trade unionist, inspects his wheat farm. Photo: AHMAD AL-RUBAYE / AFP
Source: AFP

PAY ATTENTION: Subscribe to Digital Talk newsletter to receive must-know business stories and succeed BIG!

Read also

Seaweed onslaught disrupts S.Leone fishing and tourism

The large artificial lake was created in the 1950s following construction of the Dukan dam, to supply irrigation and drinking water for the region, as well as to generate electricity.

But for several years both the lake and the river have been shrinking -- as have all of the rivers in Iraq.

The country is classified as one of the five nations most vulnerable to the effects of climate change and desertification.

Its water reserves have fallen by 60 percent compared with last year, the government says.

Rainfall becoming rare

With rainfall becoming a rarity and after three successive years of drought, Iraq has been forced to halve the area it devotes to agriculture.

"If we hadn't had a little rain in late spring, there would have been no crops in Kurdistan this year," Kalkani said.

Farmers in the area used to dig shallow wells fed by the Dukan so they could irrigate their crops. But not any more.

Read also

Turf wars stall Ireland's green agenda

A Kurdish farmer digs with a shovel irrigation ditches for water supplied from a well, in the Rania district near the Dukan Dam
A Kurdish farmer digs with a shovel irrigation ditches for water supplied from a well, in the Rania district near the Dukan Dam. Photo: AHMAD AL-RUBAYE / AFP
Source: AFP

"The wells have lost 70 percent of their water," he said.

Sesame farmer Shirko Aziz Ahmed had to dig a well several metres deep so he could access water and raise it using a diesel-powered pump.

"Sesame needs a lot of watering, so I'm going to have to dig even deeper as the water level goes down," he said.

Drought is not the only source of the farmer's water problems.

Iran has built several dams on the Lower Zab, notably the Kolsa barrage.

"The Kolsa dam has caused at least an 80 percent drop in the water levels" of the Lower Zab, said Banafsheh Keynoush of the Washington-based Middle East Institute.

She said Iran is going through one of the worst droughts in its history and has had to revise its irrigation policy.

Iran 'dam-building spree'

"Iran is on a dam-building spree, and many of its dams are small," she told AFP.

Read also

More than 20 killed in south Iran floods: state media

The Dukan dam in Iraq has also been badly affected by the reduced river flow, said its director Kochar Jamal Tawfeeq.

"Now we have only 41 percent, below half of the capacity" of the dam, he said.

It supplies drinking water for "about three million people in Sulaymaniyah and Kirkuk", two major cities downstream, he said.

But at just 300 mm (less than 12 inches) of rainfall last year -- half the previous annual average -- the skies have not been generous. And Tawfeeq said 2022 is on track to mirror last year's figures.

A pump drawing out water from a farmer's irrigation well in the Rania district, near the Dukan Dam
A pump drawing out water from a farmer's irrigation well in the Rania district, near the Dukan Dam. Photo: AHMAD AL-RUBAYE / AFP
Source: AFP

"We are releasing 90 cubic metres per second," the director said. "When the reservoir is full, we release 200 to 250."

Tawfeeq said farmers were being told "not to grow crops that need too much water".

He said Baghdad had sent teams to Iran to discuss the reduced flow of the Lower Zab river, but "there's no cooperation from the Iranians".

Read also

In Ukraine's Siversk, a grave dug on a sidewalk

Iran contends its river flow contribution into the Tigris and Euphrates basin is only about six percent, according to Keynoush.

"What Iran is trying to say is: 'The Euphrates and Tigris problems you have are really between you and Turkey'," where the two main rivers have their sources, she added.

But Iraq itself is not above criticism, said Azzam Alwash, founder of the Nature Iraq non-government organisation and presidential adviser.

Iraqi Kurdistan in the north plans to construct new dams but the projects lack any coordination with Baghdad, Alwash said.

Downstream, in central and south Iraq, the situation is being exasperated by a lack of modernisation of water resources and could result in disaster, he warned.

Source: AFP

Authors:
AFP avatar

AFP AFP text, photo, graphic, audio or video material shall not be published, broadcast, rewritten for broadcast or publication or redistributed directly or indirectly in any medium. AFP news material may not be stored in whole or in part in a computer or otherwise except for personal and non-commercial use. AFP will not be held liable for any delays, inaccuracies, errors or omissions in any AFP news material or in transmission or delivery of all or any part thereof or for any damages whatsoever. As a newswire service, AFP does not obtain releases from subjects, individuals, groups or entities contained in its photographs, videos, graphics or quoted in its texts. Further, no clearance is obtained from the owners of any trademarks or copyrighted materials whose marks and materials are included in AFP material. Therefore you will be solely responsible for obtaining any and all necessary releases from whatever individuals and/or entities necessary for any uses of AFP material.