Water wars

[Note: Not all dams are shown, and smaller tributaries are omitted - Source: Global Dam Tracker by Alice Tianbo Zhang and Vincent Xinyi Gu - By Elena Shao. The small scale below is 250 km, the large scale is 250 miles. Iraq pale blue. Clockwise from the top, surrounded by Turkey, Iran, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Syria]

[So much water has disappeared that many bridges have become unnecessary. Just one of the many striking images]

A depressing article from the NYT this morning about water, that is to say mainly about the lack of it in the once fertile Iraq. One part of the problem is that Turkey, and to a lesser extent Iran, are damming up the water (of the Tigris and the Euphrates, the two Biblical rivers) for their own use. Another part is that the climate is getting hotter and drier. Another part is that Iraq's use of such water that there is is left is rather wasteful. Yet another is the destruction and disruption caused by Islamic militants. And last but by no means least, Iraq's population has near quadrupled since the 1970's, to around 45 million now. The various wars during that time notwithstanding. Figures perhaps lifted from, but in any event confirmed by, Wikipedia.

It seems all too likely that, going forward, there are going to be a lot of refugees from Iraq. Maybe walking across the border with Turkey. And not at all clear what we might do about it.

PS 1: it seems that China is another upstream nation, making problems for downstream nations.

PS 2: one can read something of the US way with water in the southwestern states at references 3 and 4. Noting that not much of the Colorado River is left by the time that it reaches Mexico - just about a downstream nation.

PS 3: most of the words got lost when I lifted the image above from the NYT website. A deliberate ploy to deter people like me?

References

Reference 1: A climate warning from the cradle of civilisation - Alissa J. Rubin, Bryan Denton, New York Times - 2023. Alissa J. Rubin and Bryan Denton spent months reporting from nearly two dozen cities, towns and villages across Iraq.

Reference 2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Iraq.

Reference 3: http://pumpkinstrokemarrow.blogspot.com/2011/10/st-lukes.html.

Reference 4: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadillac_Desert.