Photo: The Fertile Crescent is left dry as Turkish dams reduce the Tigris and Euphrates rivers to a trickle (Image: AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)Fertile Crescent 'Will Disappear This Century' -- The New Scientist:
Is it the final curtain for the Fertile Crescent? This summer, as Turkish dams reduce the Tigris and Euphrates rivers to a trickle, farmers abandon their desiccated fields across Iraq and Syria, and efforts to revive the Mesopotamian marshes appear to be abandoned, climate modellers are warning that the current drought is likely to become permanent. The Mesopotamian cradle of civilisation seems to be returning to desert.
Last week, Iraqi ministers called for urgent talks with upstream neighbours Turkey and Syria, after the combination of a second year of drought and dams in those countries cut flow on the Euphrates as it enters Iraq to below 250 cubic metres a second. That is less than a quarter the flow needed to maintain Iraqi agriculture.
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My Comment: Turkey has made it clear that they have no interest to compromise on water flow into the Tigris and Euphrates rivers .... which means that Iraq is slowly drying up. The long term consequences and implications of these actions cannot be underestimated. Iraq is literally drying up, and if this continues, it will not be able to sustain its population.
The situation may be bad today, but it will be a picnic when compared to not having the water necessary to maintain a city like Baghdad or any other major Iraqi city on these rivers. The choice for Iraq will then be clear .... give us more water or it will be (literally) a war for our survival.
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