Iraq is the fifth country in the world most affected by the repercussions of climate change, according to the United Nations, and its impact is greatest in rural areas which are turning into zones of expulsion, while the burden increases. weighs on cities that are now teeming with slums and the deterioration of public services that experts say is disrupting the country’s socio-economic, environmental and security stability.
A statement from the Ministry of the Environment said that the launch of the project “is accompanied by water scarcity resulting from climate change”, and the Minister of the Environment, Nizar Amidi, explained during the opening ceremony. inauguration: “The objective of this project, which is in line with Iraqi national trends, is to strengthen measures to adapt to the negative effects of climate change, in particular on societies. “Rural areas, which are considered the most vulnerable, and because these effects have a relationship with the health reality of these communities.
The Minister underlined that “these activities are in line with Iraq’s orientations in the document of Iraqi national contributions for climate change, Iraq’s commitments in the Paris Agreement on climate change, the achievement of the objectives of sustainable development and the fight against poverty”.
Package details
The Undersecretary of the Ministry of Environment, Jassem Al-Falahi revealed the details of the project, in his statements to the Iraqi News Agency (INA), in which he said:
The Rural Family Adaptation Project in Southern Iraq is one of the most important projects implemented in cooperation between the Ministries of Environment, Water Resources and Agriculture and the Organization World Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), with funding from the Canadian government. The project brings together fundamental and important elements, and its main objective is to increase the resilience of affected communities to climate change, especially rural communities. It includes the governorates of Wasit, Diwaniyah, Babil, Karbala, Najaf, Dhi Qar and Muthanna. The project includes several axes, the most important is focused on food, water and energy, where for the first time solar energy is used to extract water, with the application of the concept of agriculture intelligent because the country is facing climate change, drought and lack of water revenue. This project will be the first of other projects that contribute to reducing the serious damage of climate change. However, experts and observers stress that it is necessary to go beyond diagnosing the accumulated and concerted environmental crises, and to endeavor to translate the government projects and programs proposed to fight against environmental pollution and climate change, d in a way that takes into account the reality on the ground.
An ambitious plan.. but
Environmental and agricultural expert, Engineer Tahseen Al-Moussawi told Sky News Arabia:
Climate change has become an imminent danger in Iraq with accelerating rates of warming, drought, desertification and water scarcity, resulting in the greatest damage to the most vulnerable social groups in the areas. rural, villages and peripheral and remote areas, especially the elderly, children and women. Serious and realistic programs are needed and laws to fight against environmental damage are activated. Environmental degradation continues and will worsen, which will not be solved only by holding seminars and conferences and launching plans and projects. The lesson lies in the implementation of these plans and their translation into practice, and not in the fact of remaining a dead letter or being the subject of public relations campaigns, because the various successive Iraqi governments have always proposed similar, and the result is what we see of an imminent threat to livelihoods, water and even air. Environmental culture and awareness must be disseminated, especially through educational programs, and there must be a unified and central policy that brings together all relevant ministries and institutions such as health, environment, hydraulic materials, agriculture and planning. Rural families who lost their sources of income in villages due to drought, desertification and water scarcity were forced to migrate to cities, which was reflected in their stability and social, family and even psychological balance. The project is very important and urgent in principle, but the root of the problem in the face of climate change in Iraq is the sufficiency of the diagnosis without addressing the crisis of pollution and the deterioration of the environment, in addition to the need to adopt realistic and practical production mechanisms to combat climate change and adapt to its effects, for example how can we talk about the application of smart and highly developed technologies in the light of the deterioration of infrastructure, and with deprivation and misery suffered by the general population of rural and peripheral areas?
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