By John Lee.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) has issued a new 18-page report titled, 'Climate Vulnerability Assessment in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq'.
The report highlighted a number of points:
- Iraq, including the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI), is facing various challenges related to climate change and environmental degradation, such as rising temperatures, changing rainfall patterns, severe droughts, water scarcity, and frequent sand and dust storms.
- These challenges are exacerbated by factors like water management policies, broken or inefficient water infrastructure, population growth, increasing water demand, and resource-intensive irrigation practices.
- There is a lack of dedicated data and analysis specifically for the KRI, despite its distinct climate, topography, and practices compared to central and southern Iraq.
- The KRI's reliance on rain-fed agriculture makes it vulnerable to changing rainfall patterns linked to climate change, compromising the livelihoods of farmers, livestock rearers, and fishers.
- Reduced rainfall may decrease agricultural yields and herd sizes, causing economic losses and forcing some families to abandon their livelihoods.
- To address this information gap and support data-driven programming, the International Organization for Migration's (IOM) Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM) in Iraq conducted a rapid, multi-sectoral assessment across 804 locations in 3 governorates, 20 districts, and 71 sub-districts in KRI.
- The assessment covered challenges related to displacement, environmental hazards, irrigation water supply, livelihoods, coping strategies, and tensions and conflicts over natural resources.
Click here to download the full report.
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(Source: IoM)
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