NORTHERN IRAQ RELIES ON ANCIENT ACQUEDUCTS TO RELIEVE ITS WATER SHORTAGES.

photo: S. Meyer

In northern Iraq there are ancient acqueducts that have provided the people with water for centuries, but now they are running dry.   The trend is worrying scientists, who think that this is part of a future persistent trend that will bring the area to its knees, for without water, this hot and arid part of Iraq will be all but unlivable.   A humanitarian disaster could ensue, since most of the people who live here do not have the resources to move out.

This area, where the ethnic peshmerga live, is part of what was once Kurdistan. 

One of the villagers tells an ancient story of a water acquifer that ran subtarraneously and brought water to the village, where it spouted up from a man made acqueduct just below the local mosque.  The water that surfaced from this rich vein was then rerouted for all civilian use, including farming.

The pool of water and its spring were at the center of village life.  Children played in it, and the villagers gathered round it in the evenings to tell their stories.  

The Karez, as the acqueduct and spring are known, probably dates back almost 1,000 years.  But in 2011 it suddenly ceased to bring water to the people.  Unless the villagers in Shekh Mamudian find a way to restore the flow, there will be nothing but despair for the villagers.  

The Karez system, or man made stone tunnels that push natural acquifer's water up from the ground, is a system that can be observed in almost all northern villages.  But a long, stifling drought has all but dried up the karez.  Another problem is that the villagers at time overused the karez by employing motorized pumps, and some neglected to take care of the canals.  

Since 2009 almost 40% of the karez have dried up.   Experts claim that some karez dry up on their own, and then at time come back to life, but such a rate of dehydration is suspicious and points to long term and persistent changes in the climate.  

The karez is very similar in construction to other more ancient acqueducts and were built relying on the earth's gradients to produce tunnels that harnessed gravity to push the water toward the surface.    The Romans made good use of this technique and built masterful and immense acqueducts that are still in place today.  Some scientists however believe that some karez precede Roman acqueducts by centuries.  The first karez is believed to have been built sometime in 750 B.C.

One of the advantages of the karez is that it brought water to the surface at a sustainable rate, i.e., it never pulled more water than what was naturally replaced in the acquifer or vein from rain or seepage.  

There is now an orchestrated efforts with local, country and international experts to save the karez as a sustainable system that could very well save civilization in northern Iraq is properly administered and maintained.  

What needs to be done, experts say, is re-educated the people to use the karez in the way it was intended and not abuse it by using mechanized pumps and learning its architectural structure so that it can be repaired and taken care of in a way that does not see its demise.  
 Some of the problems in taking care of the karez system are de-population, as younger people move to the city, mechanization and the scars of the recent conflict during the persecution of Kurds by Saddam Hussein.  But drought is still its chief enemy, and without careful use and preservation the system could very well dry out.

Another natural catastrophe that is becoming all too real is the water loss from the main rivers in the region, the Euphrates and Tigris, which have lost more than half of their water flow, due to damming upriver in Turkey and Syria.  In addition, 250,000 tons of raw sewage are pumped into the river Tigris each day, threatening the water supply for the entire length of the river and the water supply it furnishes to the people.  

Reviving the karez then could very well bring back Iraq from the brink.  It is one of the few resources that could be restored to a region known for its harshness.  If properly done, they could reverse desertification in certain areas. 

But this restoration needs to be done quickly, as climate change could worsen things further very soon.  

Unesco is trying to coordinated studies and works to restore or improve the flow of water in the existing karez, and has done so for the village of Shekh Mamudian, where the villagers were able to resume farming and therefore stave off famine.  More karez were slated for restoration in the area by Unesco experts. 

Source: Al Jazeera 3.23.13