HILLAH,Iraq: Iraq is one of the countries hardest hit by climate change.
The impact is being felt acutely by the nation’s farmers, who have seen crop yields diminish in recent years as temperatures rise.
Farmers in other industries, like Sarhan Jaber Taher, whose family has been rearing water buffalo for generations, have also suffered.
They care for 200 of 300 of the animals burrently, making a living off their milk. But a changing climate has been eating into their profits.
The Euphrates, the longest river in Western Asia, has fed the Fertile Crescent – a crescent-shaped region that spans several countries including Iraq – for centuries.
However, upstream dams, outdated methods of irrigation and climate change have been starving the supply of water in central Iraq.
Officials said water flows in the Euphrates, and the Tigris river, which runs almost parallel to it, were down roughly 70 per cent last year compared to previous decades.
They also said Iraq has lost a fifth of its farming land over the past 20 years, making water more scarce.