Baghdad, July 25 -- Iraq's Ministry of Water Resources said on Thursday that the drought affecting the country is due to low rainfall and reduced water inflows from upstream countries, warning of severe water insecurity across the country.
This year is "one of the driest since 1933," the ministry's spokesperson Khalid Shamal said in a statement, warning that inflow rates in the Tigris and Euphrates river basins have reached only 27 percent of what they were last year.
The current water storage in dams and reservoirs represents only 8 percent of the total storage capacity, a 57 percent decrease compared to last year, it said.
The sharp decline has severely impacted securing water needs across all Iraqi provinces, particularly in ...