Areas of the Tigris River bed in Iraq have emerged after the water level dropped to an unprecedented extent, prompting citizens to play a game of football there 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 drop in the water level between the areas of Adhamiya and Kadhimiya in Baghdad.
The video documented the normal movement of citizens, who seem to have crossed to the middle of the river in boats moored on its banks, to highlight the low level of the Tigris River, which originates in Turkey in the north and flows into the Shatt al-Arab in the south, and has reached a very worrying level.
The scene has angered a number of platform goers, who have criticized the government's measures to tackle the drought of rivers and years of low water levels.
Tweeters denounced the inability of punishable governments to build water dams to store rainwater and release it in periods of drought or high temperatures to maintain the river's vitality.
Publisher Saif al-Ali wrote on Facebook, "Since the emergence of the so-called new Iraq in 2003, no water dam has been established, God suffices and yes, the agent against all those who spread corruption and looted the wealth of the great homeland."
Iraq has been witnessing for years a significant drop in the water level of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, which resulted in the drying up of some lakes and sub-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 increasing drought with high temperatures that exceed 50 degrees Celsius for days of summer.
The repercussions of this have begun to be felt in several joints, such as the decline in wheat and sperm rice cultivation, the drying up of some lakes due to the lack of water supplies and rains, and frequent dust storms.
The total consumption rate for all needs in Iraq is about 53 billion cubic meters per year, 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 are not used from it, and the living stock used is only two billion, but Iraq resorted to using the dead stock from Lake Tharthar, using floating pumps that pump this water, which is salty and polluted water that is not suitable for agriculture.
The Haditha dam and Lake Tharthar suffer from the problem of evaporation, which Iraq loses 10 billion cubic meters of water annually, 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 2025, the features of severe drought will be very clear throughout the country with an almost total drying of the Euphrates River towards the south, and the transformation of the Tigris into a watercourse with limited resources.