Cloud-free skies deepen Iraq water crisis

Shafaq News – Baghdad

Iraq’s skies are almost entirely free of clouds, an unusual sight for this time of the year, a weather expert observed on Friday.

November is typically one of the Middle East’s most active months for rainfall and flooding, yet this year has seen clear skies and almost no rain systems.

According to Meteorologist Sadiq Atiya, the stable weather would persist across Iraq through the rest of the month, as a subtropical high‑pressure system dominates the upper atmosphere. However, he expects major changes at the start of December.

Recent years have seen a concerning decline in rainfall across Iraq, with annual precipitation dropping by about 10 percent over the past two decades, according to a 2024 report from the country’s Ministry of Environment.

This reduction comes amid what officials describe as the worst water shortage in years, with the Tigris and Euphrates rivers reaching record-low levels. The country’s water reserves have also fallen from around 60 billion cubic meters in 2020 to just 10 billion today.

Read more: From drought to saltwater: Iraq's deepening water crisis