Livelihoods ruined and villages deserted due to climate change - in pictures

Iraq and Syria's once fertile lands now jeopardised by desertification

The dried up bed of the Shatt al Mashkhab river, in Najaf city, Iraq. 'Desertification now threatens almost 40 per cent of the area of our country — a country that was once one of the most fertile and productive in the region,' President Abdul Latif Rashid told Cop27 in Egypt last week. All photos: Reuters

Abdul Abbas Ali, 24, works in his barber shop next to his family home, in the village of Al-Bu Hussain which sits on the bank of a former canal which has dried up, in Diwaniya, Iraq

'Climate change is a reality in Iraq,' the United Nations mission in Iraq said, adding that the country was the world's fifth most vulnerable to the fallout from global warming due to rising temperatures, lower rainfall, salinity and dust storms

Brothers Khudair Abbas Elwan, 15, Haider Abbas Elwan, 7, and Hamza Abbas Elwan, 12, (L to R) eat together in their family home in Al-Bu Hussain. Their father, Abbas Elwan, took his own life in August after attempts to find water for his parched farmlands failed

The desperate father had tried digging wells to grow vegetables. Each cost the equivalent of his monthly allowance. Each time water would emerge for a few days, and then dry up. 'That was his last hope,' Ali said

Reuters spoke to more than two dozen people in five provinces across Iraq who all said that a prolonged drought, which has only worsened in recent years, was crippling livelihoods

'The village is empty,' said Hedyya Ouda, one of the few remaining residents of Al-Bouzayyat, last month. She and her husband sold their livestock and were forced to travel about 60km twice a month to buy drinking water. They have since left for the city

Part of the Fertile Crescent, an arc sweeping from the Mediterranean to the Arabian Gulf where farming developed more than 10,000 years ago, Iraq has been devastated by a triple blow of lower rainfall, decades of conflict and less water flowing through the Tigris and Euphrates

Taha Yassin, 46, stands inside the deserted home of his neighbour, Hedyya Ouda who's family have left the village of Al-Bouzayyat, in Diwaniya, Iraq, November 8, 2022. "The village is empty," said Hedyya Ouda, one of the few remaining residents when Reuters visited her in October. Hedyya and her husband stopped growing wheat and barley three years ago because of water shortages, sold their livestock and were forced to travel about 60 km (40 miles) twice a month to buy drinking water. When Reuters returned to their village in November, both had left for the city. REUTERS/Alaa Al-Marjani SEARCH "CLIMATE MIDEAST WATER" FOR THIS STORY. SEARCH "WIDER IMAGE" FOR ALL STORIES.

It is feared that the crisis facing Iraq and other Middle Eastern countries could fuel more turmoil in the region as communities fight over dwindling water resources

One expert said rainfall in Iraq had declined by 30 per cent over the past three decades, with the lowest precipitation coming in the last two years. ‘What was once known as the Fertile Crescent started to die about 35 years ago,’ said Nadhir Al-Ansari, a university professor in Sweden

Kazem Hussain applies ointment to the legs of his niece, Zahraa Ali Hassan, 7, to treat a skin problem the family says is caused by contaminated water

Kazem Hussain, 52, applies ointment to the hands of his niece, Zahraa Ali Hassan, 7, to treat a skin problem the family says is caused by contaminated water, in Al Bu Ruwayyshid village, Diwaniya, Iraq. Zahraa's family say that others suffer with the same skin problems and many have diarrhoea due to the water supply

A boat lies on the dry shores of the Euphrates in Syria, where levels at dams on the river have fallen by up to 5 metres, shrinking reservoirs and leaving farmers struggling to access the remaining water reserves

The parched Balaa Dam in the Idlib countryside, Syria

A shepherd herds flock of sheep at Balaa Dam. Syria’s long-running civil war grew out of anti-government protests in 2011, after a long drought that hit crop yields and livestock and drove people into cities

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