Iraq bans summer crops as water crisis worsens

. do not modernize the way it manages water and irrigation, and they blame neighboring Turkey for stopping the rivers of Tigris and Euphrates behind the dams that she wants to continue to build.

Levels of water across these two vital rivers According to a report published in 2012 by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, Mesopotamia, the land between the rivers, has dropped more than 60% in two decades. Sowing rice, maize and other crops this summer has been a shock to the once fertile lowland towns and villages south of Baghdad, where the local economy relies on agriculture. Nationally, one in five Iraqis works in agriculture

In the Iraqi rice field, farmland is cracked and dry

"I have the impression that my existence has been shaken, "said farmer Akeel Kamil.

Its 100 dunams – about 25 acres – produced last year 150 tons of Anbar rice, a particular variety in Iraq that is valued for its floral and sweet aroma. This year, the pumps flooding his water fields are silent and the irrigation canal that passes through his property is almost empty.

Flood irrigation has been used in the region for millennia, although FAO warned of waste. She and other organizations are calling on the Iraqi government to reorganize its approach to agriculture and to promote more efficient methods, including drip irrigation and sprinkler irrigation. The Iraqi Ministry of Natural Resources protests that it does not have the budget to do it.

Farmers organized demonstrations against the moratorium. In one case, they forced the closure of a dike along a branch of the Euphrates to let the water levels rise for irrigation.

They demand that the government get more water from Turkey, fill the tanks of the country

"When we protested, no one listened to us, then we closed the dike, the police arrived and politicians have started calling us vandals, is that how a government behaves with its people? " said Mahdi al-Mhasen, a 48-year-old farm worker in Mishkhab.

The rumblings here will be heard in Baghdad. The south of Iraq is the popular base of the Shia blocks that have headed Iraqi governments since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in 2003. The rice belt hugs Najaf, the holiest city of Shiite Islam, where theologians and politicians exert a powerful influence

. Sistani, the highest Shia authority in Iraq, lambasted lawmakers, telling the government to help farmers and modernize irrigation and agriculture.

In response to pressure, the government said it was reversing its ban on rice growing. But Agriculture Ministry spokesman Hameed al-Naief told the AP that only 5,000 dunums (1,236 acres) of irrigated land could be allocated to cultivation this summer, less than 3% of the area authorized last year. resources are clear around Mishkhab. Local divers and river patrols say that their branch of the Euphrates is much shallower than it was last year. Green foam accumulates under bridges where water stagnates and where fishing boats are stranded on the riverbed.

Earlier this summer, a video on social networks indicated that the waters of the Tiger were so low that Iraqis were crossing Baghdad.

About 70% of Iraq's water supplies come from upstream countries. Turkey is siphoning an ever-increasing share of the Tigris and Euphrates to feed its growing population in a warming climate. And it is building new dams that will further constrain the availability of water in Iraq.

Syria is expected to start pulling more water from the Euphrates once it comes out of the multi-year civil war. June, and then suspended the operation until July after Baghdad pleadings. The Iraqi Ministry of Water Resources says it has enough water behind the Mosul dam to guarantee sufficient flow for a year, but according to experts, Ilisu could last up to 30 years. at three years, according to the rains

2009, but that year farmers were allowed to cultivate other crops to consolidate their incomes. This year, there is no such reprieve. Although it is OPEC's third largest oil producer, Iraq, unlike Saudi Arabia, does not distribute revenues to the general population

Mishkhab farmers say that they do not have much to lose with the revenues of the summer season. Families who depend on credit to cover their expenses during the growing season are afraid that their lenders – shop owners, mechanics, even friends – will not lend them this year because they know that the rice harvest has been canceled.

arrive at our lands? Kamil, the 42-year-old farmer, asked. "Should we leave them? Should we move to cities? "