Extreme temperatures and drought affecting Iraq are a “warning signal” addressed to the whole world, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights warned on Wednesday after a visit to Iraq. Iraq, one of the countries most exposed to certain effects of climate change.
In this month of August when temperatures are approaching 50 degrees and Iraq is suffering from drought, Volker Türk notably went to the south of the country, where “the fields are arid and in the grip of drought”.
“Rising temperatures, drought and loss of biodiversity are real. This is a wake-up call for Iraq and the whole world,” he told AFP in Baghdad. after a four-day visit. “When we look at the situation of these communities, we look at our own future”.
Considered by the United Nations as one of the five countries in the world most exposed to certain effects of climate change, Iraq is suffering its fourth consecutive drought season this year.
In question: the lack of precipitation, abnormally high temperatures, but above all, according to the Iraqi authorities, the dams built upstream by Turkey and Iran. These works led downstream to a drastic drop in the flow of the rivers in Iraqi territory.
The mythical marshes of southern Iraq are affected by “the most severe heat wave of the last 40 years”, according to the local branch of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). ).
Using a term used by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres last month, Volker Türk spoke of the advent of the “era of global boiling. Here (in Iraq, editor’s note), we live it and we sees every day”.
Iraqi Prime Minister Mohamed Chia al-Soudani says he wants to make the fight against the effects of climate change one of his “priorities”, but some environmental activists are alarmed at the lack of initiatives in this direction.
At a press conference in Baghdad on Wednesday, Volker Türk expressed concern about “reports of acts of violence, intimidation and death threats” against them.
One of them, Jassim al-Assadi, very involved in the preservation of the marshes of southern Iraq, was kidnapped and detained by unknown armed men for two weeks in February.
09/08/2023 22:52:45 – Baghdad (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
