'Our whole life depends on water': Climate change, pollution and dams threaten Iraq’s Marsh Arabs

Sabah Thamer al-Baher sits at his home in the Chebayesh marsh, Dhi Qar province, Iraq, August 15, 2021. Iraq's 2020-2021 rainfall season was the second driest in 40 years, according to the United Nations, causing the salinity of the wetlands to rise to dangerous levels. Animals fell sick and died, and Baher was forced to buy fresh drinking water for his own herd of around 20 buffaloes, his only source of income. Another drought is predicted for 2023 as climate change, pollution and upstream damming keep Iraq trapped in a cycle of recurring water crises. "The marshes are our life. If droughts persist, we will stop to exist, because our whole life depends on water and raising water buffaloes," said Baher. REUTERS/Thaier al-Sudani

CHEBAYESH MARSHES, Iraq (Reuters) - On an island surrounded by the narrow waterways of the Chebayesh Marshes in southern Iraq, Sabah Thamer al-Baher rises with the sun to milk his herd of water buffalo.

This summer has been tough for Baher, a father of two. Iraq's 2020-2021 rainfall season was the second driest in 40 years, according to the United Nations, causing the salinity of the wetlands to rise to dangerous levels.