Is the Thirthar Lake in danger?

2023-12-17

Researchers at the Upper Euphrates Basin Developing Centre at University of Anbar warned that the future of Lake Thirthar will be as the situation in Lake Razzaza after they published satellite images of the lake showing changes in the lake's reservoir and its surface area shrinking noticeably.

Satellite images taken during the same period of the year (December) in the years 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 showed that the area of the lake and its coasts has decreased significantly in 2023 compared to 2020.

Despite the relatively high rainfall rates in the 2022-2023 season, the decrease in storage and surface area continued at the same pace, which prompted researchers to warn of the seriousness of the situation in the lake and the need for urgent action to develop a program to develop the management of the lake in a way that ensures that it does not disappear, increase pressure on the environment and double the negative impact of climate change on the Iraqi environment.

According to researchers at the Centre, the use of lake water to feed the Euphrates River to secure the requirements of use in the river without imposing rationalization of water consumption and various uses, especially agricultural ones, and not using modern irrigation methods to reduce this use, in addition to the impact of climate change and the resulting lack of rainfall and high evaporation rates represent the biggest challenges for the lake management system.

For his part, the researchers from the decision-makers called for the importance of supporting and funding research to find effective solutions to this problem through a national program in which experts and researchers from research Centres in Iraqi universities and relevant Iraqi ministries (water resources, agriculture, environment, national security) contribute to developing an integrated system for water resources management through actual field surveys and measurements with the use of modern technologies such as satellite images, remote sensing and geographic information systems, in addition to artificial intelligence techniques, and that monitoring is carried out and appropriate budgets for these research projects.

To view the moving satellite images of Lake Thirthar (2020-2023) click here.

To view satellite images of the lake during 10 years click here.

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