Shafaq
News

Nearly
78% of Iraq’s territory is either already desertified or vulnerable to further
land degradation, according to official Iraqi and United Nations data,
threatening farmland, rural livelihoods and food security as rising salinity
and shrinking water resources reshape one of the Middle East’s oldest
agricultural landscapes.

The
crisis has moved beyond Iraq’s desert regions, reaching fertile areas once
sustained by the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Productive fields are
disappearing, vegetation cover is declining, and communities dependent on
farming, fishing and livestock are facing growing uncertainty as environmental
pressures intensify.

In 2025,
the World Bank identified Iraq as among the countries most vulnerable to
climate change, warning that rising temperatures, lower rainfall and worsening
water shortages are placing additional pressure on agriculture, ecosystems and
economic development.

The Iraq
Green Observatory, an Iraqi-based environmental monitoring group, describes
desertification and land degradation as among the country’s most serious
environmental and economic challenges. “Desertification has struck Iraq hard
over the past two decades, and the latest official data and environmental
reports available through June 2026 indicate that the scale of the problem
continues to expand,” Observatory member Omar Abdul Latif told Shafaq
News.

Around
55% of Iraq’s territory has already become desertified, while another 23.2%
remains vulnerable to further degradation, according to Abdul Latif. Together,
the figures mean that nearly four-fifths of the country is either already
affected or at risk of losing productive capacity unless action is taken to
slow the deterioration.

The
impact is particularly severe in agriculture, where decades of land
degradation, overgrazing and declining water resources have steadily reduced
Iraq’s productive capacity.

Abdul
Latif estimated that Iraq has lost between 15% and 30% of its agricultural land
over the past three decades because of worsening environmental conditions.

For many
rural households, the losses threaten a major source of income. Agriculture
remains central to communities that depend on crop production, livestock, and
related activities, according to assessments by the Food and Agriculture
Organization (FAO).

‘’The
damage has been especially severe in irrigated farmland. Around 71% of Iraq’s
irrigated land has been affected by desertification, a considerably higher
share than in neighboring Turkiye and Syria,’’ Abdul Latif noted.

What was
once largely associated with Iraq’s arid regions has spread into the
Mesopotamian alluvial plain, an area historically known for fertile soil and
agricultural production along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.

Rising
salinity has emerged as another major threat to cultivation. Abdul Latif
revealed that about 61% of Iraq’s agricultural land is now vulnerable to salt
accumulation, while the country loses roughly 100,000 dunams (25,000 hectares)
of productive land each year because of worsening soil conditions.

The
buildup of salt has been linked to continued reliance on traditional flood
irrigation, weak drainage networks and rising saline groundwater, which have
accelerated soil degradation across agricultural areas.

Read more: Death in the current: Pollution decimates Iraq’s river ecosystems

Rivers
Run Dry

Behind
the loss of productive farmland lies a deeper water crisis affecting both the
availability and quality of Iraq’s freshwater resources.

The
country relies heavily on the Tigris and Euphrates rivers for its water supply,
leaving it highly vulnerable to reduced river flows, changing rainfall patterns
and rising temperatures. Assessments by the World Bank and FAO have warned that
declining water availability is already affecting agriculture, ecosystems and
rural communities.

The
challenge is not only the amount of water reaching Iraq’s fields. The quality
of that water is also deteriorating. Agricultural drainage has placed
additional pressure on the country’s waterways, with large quantities of saline
water returning to the same river systems that support farming and ecosystems.

“The
country’s waterways are facing additional strain from agricultural
drainage,” Abdul Latif remarked, pointing out that Iraq releases around 23
billion cubic meters of saline drainage water into its rivers each year.

The discharge
has increased salinity levels in the Tigris, Euphrates, and Shatt al-Arab
waterways, affecting agricultural production and placing additional pressure on
fisheries.

Read more: The cost of filth: Iraq among the world’s most polluted nations

Environmental
decline has also become increasingly visible in Iraq’s cities, where
disappearing vegetation has weakened natural barriers against heat and dust.

Half of Iraq’s
forests and green belts have disappeared over recent decades, removing
ecosystems that once helped reduce dust storms and slow the spread of dry
conditions. Baghdad offers one of the clearest examples of this transformation.
Much of the capital’s green belt has vanished, while dusty days have increased
sharply.

The city
now experiences around 272 dusty days each year, compared with roughly 24
annually in the 1970s, according to the Iraq Green Observatory.

“The
increase in dust storms has become one of the most visible signs of Iraq’s
changing environment, affecting transportation, public health and daily life
across the country,” it added, noting that with fewer trees and green
spaces available to absorb heat and trap dust particles, urban areas have
become more exposed to higher temperatures, poorer air quality and the broader
consequences of changing weather patterns.

The
consequences are also reshaping life in Iraq’s rural communities, particularly
in the Mesopotamian Marshes, which were recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage
Site in 2016 for their ecological and cultural importance.

According
to the Iraq Green Observatory, thousands of villages have lost income from
farming, fishing and water buffalo breeding as ecosystems have deteriorated.
Lower water levels in the Tigris and Euphrates, together with reduced water
releases, have dried up large parts of the marshes in recent years,
contributing to livestock losses, declining fish stocks and the migration of
many rural families to urban areas.

Although
improved water availability in parts of the marshes during 2026 helped restore
some ecosystems, the recovery remains fragile without stable water allocations
and long-term management of the country’s water resources.

Read more: The air we breathe: How pollution is quietly rewriting Iraq’s future

The World
Bank has also warned that climate-related pressures have forced thousands of
farmers to reduce planting or abandon their fields as fuel, fertilizer and seed
costs rise and imported products become more competitive.

Addressing
the crisis, it added, will require sustained efforts combining modern water
management, rehabilitation of degraded land, expanded tree-planting
initiatives, restoration of green areas, and improvements to irrigation and
drainage systems.

“Desertification
is no longer solely an environmental issue. It has become a matter of food,
water and social security,” Abdul Latif concluded, warning that continued
losses of productive land will leave Iraq facing greater challenges in the
years ahead.

Read more: Death in the current: Pollution decimates Iraq’s river ecosystems

Written
and edited by Shafaq News staff.