Water scarcity issue in Iraq

Water scarcity issue in Iraq

Table of Contents

Introduction 3

Literature Review 5

Methodology 8

Reference List 10

Introduction

Background of the study:

The Middle East along with the North African regions, is found to be the most waster scarce region, as nearly 17 nations in this region is under bellow water poverty line, which is set by the United nations (Scott, 2018).

Despite the economic advancement and industrialization, the nations in Middle East are yet to find out effective solution or alternative for the lack of resources for water. Several challenges are there, that these nations are facing, while dealing with the water scarcity issues. The climate change in 21’st century had a hard hit on the nations and have further worsen the issue with water scarcity. The International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has observed that, the MENA regions, that comprises of Middle East and North Africa is going to face more water scarcity issues due to the climate change. Unfortunately this nation posses a mere 1% of the total renewable freshwater resources (T.R.W.R.) and back in 2011, the per capital share of this water was a mere of 819.8 cubic meters (Kandeel, 2017).

The recovery from this situation is becoming difficult due to the conflict in nations in Middle East. For example, the political conflict among neighboring nations is affecting the water crisis issue in Israel and Jordan. During 2018, Jordan’s King Abdullah II, imposed a ban on Israel’s farmer’s access to farming land among rolling golden hills which is located just six miles away from Sea of Galilee. On the other hand, retaliating to this, the government of Israel has threatened that it would put limitations on the water it shares with Israel (Givetash, 2018). Thus, along with the political issues, several other reasons, like infrastructure, international relationship and so on, are posing challenges to this issue which needs proper solutions. This study would investigate this matter by chiefly focusing on the issue in Iraq.

Aim: The aim is to find out the challenges as well as the possible solutions to water scarcity issues in Israel.

Objectives:

To find out the current state of water scarcity in Middle East

To find out the current state of water scarcity specifically in Iraq

To understand the challenges associated with water scarcity issue

To find out the possible solutions of this issue

Research Questions:

What is the current state of water scarcity in Middle East?

What is the current state of water scarcity specifically in Iraq?

What are the challenges associated with water scarcity issue?

What are the possible solutions of this issue?

Research Rationale

This may impact the whole civilization and affect suitability. Due to the lack of solutions and political clashes, this still has remained a major issue for Iraq and rest of the Middle East.

This study would focus on current water scarcity issues in Middle East and specifically in Iraq. Then it would propose for a research that can help to understand the challenges and solutions associated with the issue. It would document information from secondary resources to delve deeper to the issue.

Literature Review

Critically analyzing the current state of water scarcity in Middle East

Middle East and North Africa (MENA) is well known for their water crisis and challenges. However, it was reported by the United Nations that this MENA region has 17 countries below the water poverty line (Scott, 2018). It can also be reported that although the MENA region can be considered as the residence of world’s 6% population, it has hardly has access to 1% of world’s water resources. It was also stated that narrowing the gap of this MENA region between water demand and supply is essential and requires immediate attention. Based on the 2018 Arab Regional report it can be easily stated that climate change, shared water supply and rapid economic and population growth are the major influential factors (Zawahri, 2015). It was also mentioned in this report that major water crisis gets reflected in these countries when the water supply falls below 500 cubic meter per person. While 13 countries already fell under the benchmark for absolute water scarcity, 7 of them are facing absolute water crisis (Scott, 2018). Unsustainable water consumption can also be considered as a major reason behind the development of the water crisis in some of these countries. It was also observed that several countries from Middle East had already started to use sea water after separating the salt from it.

Determining the influential factors behind the water crisis in Iraq

Water scarcity or crisis can be considered as the situation when the supply of water for a particular region gets reduced from the adequate demand for freshwater. The major reason for water crisis can be considered as climate change or over population.

Interstate Conflicts

Interstate conflicts can be considered as the major reason behind the reduction of water security in Iraq. It was reported that Kurdish forces have stated taking full control of the Kirkuk after Baghdad swept across Iraq (Zawahri, 2015). As a result while these states were busy in gaining their own rights they forgot to develop their sustainable future. After the fight of long two years now the water crisis of these states had taken its ultimate form. It was also reported that the fight between Baghdad and Kurdish capital is getting sharpened now (Kandeel, 2017). It can be stated that these regional tension could lead to a major conflict.

Water Securities

Water security policies play a major role in developing long term water sustainability. However, due to continuous ignorance of these policies the hydrological system of this region is already engendered and polluted. The aquifers and Trans Boundary Rivers were also polluted. Thereafter as a result of rapid population growth, industrialization, mismanagement of existing water supplies the region is already facing water scarcity. This will only get worse in future.

Political Difficulties

The region of MENA is not only facing interstate conflicts but also having political difficulties. Instability, Conflict, turmoil between Syria, Iraq, Libya and Yemen had already damaged their infrastructure. However, after this the requirement of reconstruction demands more water supplies. It can be stated that these conflicts had already threaten these states to get destabilize. The ignorance of these countries for a sustainable future had leaded them to the water crisis.

Climate Changes

Climate changes can be considered as another major factor that leads to water crisis in Iraq. It was reported that MENA region had faced one of the major hits in terms of Climate change in 21st century due to increased aridity and heat (Scott, 2018). This had resulted in increased number of droughts, declining rainfall and higher evaporation rates. Therefore, it was reported that a reduction of 75% of freshwater was observed in MENA regions. This had also created a compromise in food security in Arab region. It was reported that Arab depends on 30 to 35% on the food supply from other countries (Kandeel, 2017).

Critically examining the impact of these factors on the water challenges in Iraq

The major impact of water scarcity gets revealed through the food quality of that region. Therefore, the major impacts of these factors of water crisis can be observed from the following situations.

Food Quality and Poor Health

Water scarcity forces the population to drink low quality water that is already contaminated. They are also compelled to prepare their food using the contaminated water. As a result it was reported that the rate of water borne disease in MENA region is very high as compared to any other country (Givetash, 2018). Lack of water also leads to stagnant sewage system that gives birth to harmful insects and bacteria. Sanitation quality may also get compromised as a result of unavailability of water.

Hunger

Water can be considered as life for livestock animals and generating corps. It was also reported that around 70% of global water usage is for agriculture while only 10% of water is used for domestic usages (Kandeel, 2017). As a result not only animals will die for water human population will also face the hunger.

Destruction of Ecosystem

Scarcity of water will lead to desertification of natural landscape and lose of plants and wildlife animals. Therefore, this will directly impact the environmental ecological system of that region. It was reported that the Aral Sea of central Asia that was popular as world’s fourth largest lake of freshwater now reduced by over a third (eartheclipse.com, 2018).

Poverty

The ecological catastrophes compel population to suffer from habitat loss, food shortage and low quality of life. As a result of over usage the water of Aral Sea is now salted and the surrounding ecosystem is also highly destroyed (Zawahri, 2015).

Identifying the possible solutions for addressing the water challenge of Iraq

The situation of MENA region needs to develop an appropriate strategy to address their water crisis immediately. Technology needs to be used for developing the process of Recharging aquifers or groundwater. The government also needs to incorporate an effective water treatment technology. It is also suggested to the Government to repair their infrastructure and increase the awareness of water crisis challenges faced by the population. Water conservation and water management are the key factor to implement sustainable water usage strategy. An effective desalination process is also required for using the salted water.

Methodology

Research Philosophy

Research philosophy can be defined as the procedure that can be incorporated for gathering the required data for analyzing a situation. Therefore before conducting any research the researcher needs to gain proper understanding about the flow of the research. Research philosophy generally guides the researcher to develop the flow of the research. This research needs to determine the challenges generated from water crisis in Iraq and recommend a strategy to address these challenges. Epistemology research philosophy is based on the human belief. However, Inteprevitism requires researcher to interpret the meaning of the data gathered. Bilau et al. (2018, p.599) defined positivism philosophy as the scientific process that is based only on factual knowledge. Positivism research philosophy will enable the researcher to gather and design a data set based on observation that will include measurements.

Research Approach

Research approach can be considered as the skeleton of any research as it reflect the step by step process followed by the researcher to reach the project outcome. Deductive and inductive research approaches are the basic research approach incorporated by the researcher widely. Jonsen et al. (2018, p.39) defined deduction approach as the process of examining an existing theory. However, Inductive approach can be considered as the process of developing a theory. The current research needs to develop a theory that will define the strategy to address the water crisis of Iraq. Therefore, inductive research approach will be applicable for conducting this research.

Research Design

Research design can be considered as the organization and conditions for the collection of required data to conduct the research. Therefore, it is essential for the researcher to determine the set of methods required for data collection and analysis for this research. Pålsson et al. (2018, p.1129) defined descriptive research design as the set of methods that will be applicable for the data collected from observations. Therefore, descriptive research design will be applicable for analyzing the challenges of water crisis in Iraq.

Data collection and analysis Tools

Data collection and analysis tools are required to be selected to ensure that the relevant data for the research gets selected and critically analyzed. Therefore, it is essential for any research to incorporate the suitable tools for data collection and analysis. Moser and Korstjens (2018, p.17) stated that primary data can be defined as the data that is collected during the research, However, secondary data is considered as the process of analyzing the existing data from future researches. The research problem of critically analyzing the water scarcity issue of Middle East and particularly Iraq will already have vast amount of data from existing researches. Therefore, Secondary data collection through thematic analysis will be applicable for this research.

Ethical Consideration and Limitations

The data gathered for this research will not be obtained for conducting any other research and will also not be used for any commercial application. The research will be conducted using secondary data collection tool through thematic analysis. Therefore, the research is bound to provide authentic resources that were used for conducting the research, However, it can be stated that due to shortage of time and money the primary data collection process cannot be used by the researcher for conducting the research.

Reference List

Bilau, A.A., Witt, E. and Lill, I., 2018. Research methodology for the development of a framework for managing post-disaster housing reconstruction. Procedia engineering, 212, pp.598-605.

eartheclipse.com, 2018. What is Water Scarcity? EARTH ECLIPSE [online]. Available at: https://www.eartheclipse.com/environment/causes-effects-and-solutions-to-water-scarcity.html [Accessed 25/02/2019]

Givetash, L., 2018. Water scarcity fuels tensions across the Middle East. NEWS[online]. Available at: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/water-scarcity-fuels-tensions-across-middle-east-n924736 [Accessed 26/02/2019]

Jonsen, K., Fendt, J. and Point, S., 2018. Convincing qualitative research: what constitutes persuasive writing?. Organizational Research Methods, 21(1), pp.30-67.

Kandeel, A., 2017. Climate Change: The Middle East Faces a Water Crisis. MEI [online]. Available at: https://www.mei.edu/publications/climate-change-middle-east-faces-water-crisis [Accessed 25/02/2019]

Moser, A. and Korstjens, I., 2018. Series: Practical guidance to qualitative research. Part 3: Sampling, data collection and analysis. European Journal of General Practice, 24(1), pp.9-18.

Pålsson, Y., Engström, M., Leo Swenne, C. and Mårtensson, G., 2018. A peer learning intervention targeting newly graduated nurses: A feasibility study with a descriptive design based on the Medical Research Council framework. Journal of advanced nursing, 74(5), pp.1127-1138.

Scott, K., 2018. Can the Middle East solve its water problem? CNN [online]. Available at: https://edition.cnn.com/2018/07/11/middleeast/middle-east-water/index.html [Accessed 24/02/2019]

Zawahri, N., 2015. Water Security in the Middle East and North Africa. DU[online]. Available at: https://humanitiesfutures.org/papers/water-security-middle-east-north-africa/ [Accessed 24/02/2019]