Sand storms a further blow to Iraqi hopes

IRAQ IS experiencing the worst sand and dust storms in memory, blotting the landscape and the country’s prospects for economic recovery.

Airports, schools and administrative offices have been forced to close and hundreds of Iraqis with respiratory difficulties have swamped hospitals. Two years of drought and a reduced flow of water in the Tigris and Euphrates rivers are transforming farmland into desert, diminishing drinking water supplies and cutting agricultural production.

Historically, Iraq, which lies between the two rivers, has had plenty of water. But the damming of the flow of the rivers’ headwaters by Turkey has been devastating to Iraq and, to a lesser extent, Syria.

Both countries have pressed Turkey to increase the amount of water they receive. Turkey boosted the supply to Syria by 40 per cent and to Iraq by 60 per cent of the average flow. But this is not enough to compensate for scant rainfall.

Tensions between Baghdad and Ankara have increased.

“The impact of the drought will continue for years to come unless there are huge efforts to bring in modern irrigation systems and abundant water to drain areas affected with high levels of salinity,” said Mahdi al-Qaisi, under-secretary of the ministry of agriculture.

The grain-growing areas of the north are parched and the date palm and citrus plantations in the centre and east have withered. Reservoirs are dry. Iraq needs to double the flow of the Euphrates to meet demand in the southern rice fields alone.

Wheat and barley production could halve the 2007 output, compelling the government – cash-strapped because of the fall in oil prices – to purchase supplies abroad, especially of wheat and rice.

Iraq was once the world’s chief exporter of dates, and earned high prices for fine rice from the western Anbar province. No longer. Most of the vast date palm plantations have died, and farmland along the two rivers has become saline. As the rivers’ levels fall and the southern marshes dry out, fishermen are losing their livelihood. Meanwhile, snakes are emerging from their dens to attack humans and livestock.

Farm and scrubland are denuded of plant life, and topsoil picked up by the wind contributes to daily storms. Bombs and the heavy tread of military vehicles have played their part in breaking up the delicate surface of desert and semi-arid areas, increasing the intensity of the sand storms.