DIWANIYAH: Hundreds of Iraqi farmers protested Saturday against the government’s policy of curbing land cultivation to preserve dwindling water supplies, an AFP correspondent said.
Year-on-year droughts and declining rainfall have brought agriculture to its knees in a country still recovering from decades of war and chaos, and where rice and bread are diet staples.
Water scarcity has forced many farmers to abandon their plots, and authorities have drastically reduced farm activity to ensure sufficient drinking water for Iraq’s 46 million people.
In the Ghammas area in the southern province of Diwaniyah, hundreds of farmers, including from neighboring provinces, gathered to urge the government to allow them to farm their lands.
They called on the authorities to compensate them for their losses and distribute water for agriculture.
“We have come from four provinces to demand the rights and compensation owed to farmers,” one of the protesters, Mahmoud Saleh, said.
“The farmer has been wronged. They will not let us cultivate the wheat crop next year, and they have cut off water supplies,” he added.
Mohammed Amoush, who used to cultivate 100 dunum (25 hectares) of farms, said “our land has become fallow.”
“There is no agriculture, only financial loss. We are devastated,” he added.
Iraq’s historically fertile plains stretched along the once-mighty Tigris and Euphrates, but water levels have plummeted drastically over the past decades.
In addition to the drought, authorities also blame upstream dams in neighboring countries for reducing the rivers’ flow.
In recent weeks, the Euphrates has seen its lowest levels in decades, especially in the southern provinces, and water reserves in artificial lakes are at their lowest in the country’s recent history.
Iraq currently receives less than 35 percent of its share of the river water allocated according to preexisting agreements and understandings with neighboring countries, according to authorities.
Decades of war have also left the country’s water management systems in disrepair.
Iraqi farmers protest cultivation ban amid drought
https://arab.news/72644
Iraqi farmers protest cultivation ban amid drought
- Hundreds of Iraqi farmers protested Saturday against the government’s policy of curbing land cultivation to preserve dwindling water supplies, an AFP correspondent said
Syria transition ‘fragile’, one year on: UN investigators
- The commission said moving beyond the legacy of war and destruction would take “great strength, patience and support”
GENEVA: Syria’s transition is fragile, one year on from the overthrow of ruler Bashar Assad, and the country’s cycles of vengeance and reprisal need to end, United Nations investigators said Sunday.
Syrians have been marking the first anniversary since Islamist-led forces pressed a lightning offensive to topple Assad on December 8, 2024 after nearly 14 years of war.
The UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria investigates and records all international human rights law violations since March 2011 in the country.
The panel congratulated Syria on the steps it has taken so far to address the crimes and abuses inflicted during previous decades.
But it said violent events since Assad’s downfall had caused renewed displacement and polarization, “raising worries about the future direction of the country.”
The commission said the “horrific catalogue” of abuse inflicted by Assad’s regime “amounted to industrial criminal violence” against Syria’s people.
“The cycles of vengeance and reprisal must be brought to an end, so that Syria can continue to move toward a future as a state that guarantees full respect for the human rights of all its people, with equality, the rule of law, peace and security for all in name and in deed,” the commission said.
“Syria’s transition is fragile. While many across the country will celebrate this anniversary, others are fearing for their present security, and many will sleep in tents again this winter. The unknown fate of many thousands who were forcibly disappeared remains an open wound.”
The commission said moving beyond the legacy of war and destruction would take “great strength, patience and support.”
“The Syrian people deserve to live in peace, with full respect for rights long denied, and we have no doubt they are up to the task,” it said.
The three-person commission is tasked with establishing facts with a view to ensuring that the perpetrators of violations are ultimately held accountable.
The UN Human Rights Council extended its mandate for a further year in April.
