Severe drought dries up Amarli Lake, forcing residents to leave villages

SALAH AL-DIN — Severe drought has dried up the lake in Amarli district, transforming it into barren land and threatening the livelihoods of local residents. Footage from the area shows the lake completely depleted of water, an unprecedented situation that has impacted more than 10 border villages and forced some inhabitants to relocate.

Amarli District Commissioner Maysam Nouri told 964media that the current drought is the worst in about 100 years.

“We submitted a request to the Iraqi government to find immediate solutions and intervene urgently to address the situation of the area’s residents, because Lake Amarli has never dried up like it has this year,” Nouri said.

According to Nouri, more than 10 villages have suffered from the drought, with their lands becoming barren and some residents forced to migrate in search of income sources.

“The current wave of drought has not only created an environmental crisis but also an economic disaster, as all agricultural plans scheduled for the winter season were canceled due to the lack of water sources for irrigation,” he said.

This year has been among Iraq’s hardest for water scarcity, driven by prolonged drought and reduced flows from upstream countries, particularly Turkey.

The Badr parliamentary bloc on Wednesday threatened to sever all political and economic relations with Turkey if Ankara continues what it described as a “clear hostile act” of restricting water flows to Iraq.

In July, Iraq’s Minister of Water Resources Aoun Dhiab said Turkey had not released the agreed volume of water from the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, contradicting earlier statements by Parliament Speaker Mahmoud Al-Mashhadani, who had said Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan agreed to increase the flow beginning July 2.