Mustafa Ahmed, 13, herds buffalo toward a river in the Al-Mishkhab district on the outskirts of Najaf, Iraq, on June 23. ALAA AL-MARJANI/REUTERS
Drought increasingly imperils Iraq's water buffalo and rural communities' way of life
Petting a water buffalo before tying a fodder bag around its neck, Mustafa Ahmed, 13, cares for his father's herd in Iraq's southern province of Najaf, where his relatives have raised animals for generations — but the lack of water now threatens their livelihood.
Iraq forms part of the Fertile Crescent, land sweeping from the Mediterranean to the Persian Gulf which has been farmed for thousands of years. But the landscape has been devastated by upstream damming of Iraq's two main rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates, lower rainfall trends and decades of conflict.
Mustafa Ahmed, 13, stands in front of his family's buffalo herd, in the Al-Mishkhab district on the outskirts of Najaf, Iraq, on June 23. ALAA AL-MARJANI/REUTERS
Ahmed's father, Ahmed Abdul Hussein, 35, said the dire water shortage in their home in Al-Mishkhab district is forcing him to sell their animals one by one, a heartbreaking move for his son.
They recently lost a 2-month-old calf. "It hurts that one of them died... I really love them", the boy said. "Now we have nine left."
Last year they had 20.
Boys herd buffalo toward the Euphrates River in the village of Umm Khashm on the outskirts of Najaf, Iraq, on July 2. ALAA AL-MARJANI/REUTERS
In the nearby district of Umm Khashm, the number of water buffalo fell from 15,000 to 9,000 over five years, said local mayor Meshtaq Sebar.
Khaled Shemal, a spokesman for Iraq's ministry of water resources, said Najaf province received about 40 percent of its usual share of water this year.
Children play with buffalo inside the animals' pen in the village of Umm Khashm on the outskirts of Najaf, Iraq, on July 2. ALAA AL-MARJANI/REUTERS
The situation is worse in Iraq's southern marshes, which were already in a fragile state and are now experiencing the most severe heat wave of the last 40 years. Almost 70 percent of the marshes are devoid of water, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.
Shemal said water flows on the Euphrates and Tigris rivers have dropped by about 70 percent this year compared to previous decades.
Farmers and buffalo herders sit with children in a courtyard in the Al-Mishkhab district on the outskirts of Najaf, Iraq, on June 26. ALAA AL-MARJANI/REUTERS
Officials and experts cite upstream damming, climate change, outdated domestic irrigation techniques and a lack of long-term management plans as the root causes of a water crisis that is driving thousands out of the countryside.
Mustafa Ahmed, 13, (left) and his father Ahmed Abdul Hussein, 35,(right) cross a bridge over the Al-Shallal waterway in the Al-Mishkhab district on the outskirts of Najaf, Iraq, on June 23. ALAA AL-MARJANI/REUTERS
Nadhir Al-Ansari, professor at Sweden's Lulea University of Technology, said the water quality in Najaf is among the poorest in Iraq. Untreated wastewater and chemical fertilizers dumped into the river upstream make the water increasingly unfit for consumption as it flows down south, he said.
