As the Guardian highlights, ‘Iraq’s oil boom is blamed for worsening water crisis in drought-hit south’. Iraq is the world’s fourth-largest oil exporter, where the oil industry is not only important, but necessary, for the Iraqi economy. In 2023, the government received $115 billion in revenue from the oil industry, accounting for 95% of the annual governmental budget. In a world where energy sources continue to be diversified and transitioned, Iraq relies on its expanse of oil fields, which inject millions of barrels of water every day, draining out any last drop of water left. In recent years, the water levels of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers have declined significantly, partly due to climate-related temperature shifts, but largely exacerbated by the regional oil infrastructure. How far can this go before change is irreversible, or is it already too late?
After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, western oil companies have sought to benefit from off Iraq’s vast oil fields that expand mainly across the southern marshlands of the region. These wetlands, that used to sustain large communities, are now increasingly drained, leaving the landscape with vast expanses of dry mud and marshes. The Rumaila oil field, said to be the largest oilfield ever discovered in Iraq, is situated in the southern region and is estimated to account for 12% of Iraq’s oil reserves. However, this booming oil production is depleting the water supply, where in North Rumaila, 1.4 million barrels of water are injected every day. This results in the over-exploitation of the water reserves and marshlands.
Water levels in the region have plummeted by 40% since the 2000s, posing a challenge to the industry which relies mainly on water. It is arguable that this decrease in water availability will lead to an inevitable decrease in oil production, due to the fact that the industry heavily relies on water, decreasing the volume of water injected. However, water will only continue to be injected, and the situation will only continue to be exacerbated until the regional water supply is completely diminished. This is highlighted by Walid Al Hamid, a senior official for environmental affairs in southern Iraq: ‘unlike in other nations where they operate, these companies in Iraq demonstrate a disregard for environmental regulations and fail to mitigate their impact, driven by a cost-cutting mindset’. There is simply no secure limit set to control the volumes of water injected by oil companies on a daily basis. This renders the water supply inaccessible to local communities. Villages surrounding the oil fields are suffering severe water shortages and thriving fishing communities are impacted as fresh water is depleted.
The water supply crisis is only aggravated by the construction of Turkish and Iranian dams. Iraq relies predominantly on transboundary sources of water supply, as the Tigris and the Euphrates both originate in Turkey, flow through Syria, and then flow into Iraq. This leads to poor water distribution in Iraq, where the central government cannot control water supply to the extent that is needed. Like some community members say, ‘The guy in Turkey closed the tap on us’.
According to projections by the Iraq Energy Institute, by 2030, the country could face a water deficit of 37%. As long as Iraq remains solely reliant on the oil industry, it will not be able to fight the impacts of climate change and protect the natural landscape which preserves the Iraqi population’s necessary resources. Iraq will have to make a significant political jump towards diversified energy resources, but whether they have the economic and political capacity to do so is questioned. It is equally important that the Iraqi government promotes desalination projects. TotalEnergies has launched an initiative to construct a water desalination plant to serve both local communities and oil extraction operations in the southern marshland region, with the aim of sustaining oil production for the Iraqi economy whilst protecting the drying environment. Whilst this initiative would be a positive move to keep water supply levels stable in the region, it does not reduce the emissions released by the oil extraction processes. In this way, given Iraq’s climate, solar energy should be prioritised as a renewable energy process that does not use water supply, and neither emits into the atmosphere. Moving away from oil infrastructure in the southern region of Iraq would evidently improve water supply levels to a great extent, allowing the natural landscape to be protected, not only improving the regional biodiversity, but also saving the livelihoods of the fishing communities and cities that rely on water as a lifeline.
