All dried up: The village of al-Najim, Iraq, where extreme drought has led to growing desertification. Persistent drought has battered Iraq over the past three years. — ©2023 The New York Times Company
EVERY schoolchild learns the name: Mesopotamia – the Fertile Crescent, the cradle of civilisation.
Today, much of that land is turning to dust.
Climate change effect
All dried up: The village of al-Najim, Iraq, where extreme drought has led to growing desertification. Persistent drought has battered Iraq over the past three years. — ©2023 The New York Times Company
Young Iraqi boys search for fish in the stagnant waters of an almost-dry irrigation canal in al-Simsim, a village on the outskirts of Najaf, Iraq.
A patient is offered water in the cholera ward of the Shahid Hemn Hospital in Sulimaniyah. Cholera outbreaks, which usually happen sporadically in August when water supplies are at their lowest, are now happening far earlier in the year in Sulimaniyah.
Raad Ubaid tastes water from the well of his friend and neighbour, Jody Ahmed Nasir, in al-Simsim. In many areas, water pumped from below the surface is far too salty to drink, the result of dwindling water, agricultural runoff and untreated waste.
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