HABBANIYAH, IRAQ: Mohamed, an Iraqi businessman, has never experienced such a dreary tourist season: years of drought have reduced the gorgeous Lake Habbaniyah, driving away tourists who used to swarm there in the summer.
35-year-old Mohamed, asking to be identified by his first name only, said, “The last two years, there was some activity, but now there’s no more water.”
In front of his lakefront shop, he set out inflatable water floats, nets, and shirts, but he expected few customers. Mohamed told AFP, “This year, it’s dry, dry!” his shirt was wet with sweat in the barren heat of nearly 50 degrees Celsius.
Following four years of drought, the shorelines of Habbaniyah, which is around 70 kilometers (45 miles) west of Baghdad, have receded by a few dozen meters.
Iraq, a country with limited water resources, is one of five countries listed by the UN as being most affected by some climate change effects. According to Jamal Odeh Samir, director of water resources in Anbar province, where Habbaniyah is situated, the lake can store up to 3.3 billion cubic meters (117 trillion cubic feet) of water when complete, as it did last in 2020. He told AFP, “But now, the water is reduced to less than 500 million cubic meters.”
In the height of summer, businesses like Mohamed’s and vacation homes near the lake are now deserted. Stray dogs can be seen on the beach pacing between empty umbrellas. Visitors must walk through foul-smelling sludge buried beneath the lake’s surface to reach the water.
In the years that followed, travelers from all over the Middle East began to flock to the resort, which had been built around the artificial lake. Habbaniyah and a large portion of the rest of the country have been severely impacted by declining rainfall over the previous four years and rising temperatures.
Baghdad’s incredibly low water level in the Euphrates River, which feeds the lake and flows through Syria, is attributed to upstream dam construction by Turkey. According to Khaled Shamal, spokesman for the Ministry of water resources, “the strategic water reserves in Iraq are at their lowest point” in almost a century.
Volker Turk, the head of the UN human rights office, issued a warning last week while visiting Baghdad, saying that “rising temperatures combined with the drought, and the fact that the loss of diversity is a reality, is a wake-up call for Iraq and the world.” According to Sada’a Saleh Mohamed, a local official in charge of the resort’s finances, the lake has retreated, and tourism is now “really very weak.”
“The lake is now but contaminated water, it unsafe for swimming or human consumption,” he said.
The temperatures dropped a bit in the evening, and few people finally came to barbecue on the beach.
From a nearby city called Fallujah, Qassem Lafta travelled here with his family. The water was higher before we would come here, and it was much better, claimed the 45-year-old merchant. He expressed his desire for the lake to be revived. He said, “It’s the only place where people from Baghdad, Anbar, and southern Iraq can visit and relax.”
AFP/APP
