Environmental challenges for the management of surface water resources in Iraq

Abstract

The integrated management of water resources, the need for a basic run-up to the process of planning for sustainable development, as the reliance on a single source of water to meet all requirements pose a threat to all development projects, especially in the transboundary rivers and shared between more than two states, as is the case of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in Iraq, which is located in dry areas are less than the amount of precipitation. As the inefficiency of water management and increasing water deficit and the continuing deterioration of the quality of water resources over the past decades is characteristic of the Arab region, is expected to decrease the discharge of the Tigris and Euphrates rate (30-50%) during the next fifty years