Kenneth Glad
Falling water levels are raising concerns over disease, farming and access to safe supplies in Iraq. The crisis has also prompted some online commentators to connect the shrinking flow with Biblical prophecy.
In parts of Iraq, falling river levels are making clean water harder to access, writes the Daily Express.
The Euphrates flows through Turkey, Syria and Iraq and supports farms, homes and local economies. Lower water levels can affect crop production, sanitation and household water supplies.
Naseer Baqar, a climate activist and field coordinator at Tigris River Protectors Association in Iraq, said to BMJ:
“Diarrhea, chicken pox, measles, typhoid fever, and cholera are currently spreading across Iraq because of the water crisis, and the government no longer provides vaccines to its citizens.”
Water keeps falling
The British newspaper cites a 2013 NASA study that found the Tigris and Euphrates river basins lost 117 million acre feet of freshwater between 2003 and 2009. Much of the water loss was tied to groundwater extraction.
According to the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Iraq’s Ministry of Water Resources has warned that the Euphrates could dry up by 2040 without urgent action.
The CSIS writes that Euphrates water levels have dropped to one of their lowest recorded points.
Water experts have linked the shrinking flow to drought, climate change, groundwater extraction and rising demand.
Prophecy claims spread
The shrinking river has drawn attention from some Christian end-times commentators online, who have connected it to the Book of Revelation, reports The Daily Express.
In that reading, the drying of the waterway is treated as a possible sign of events described before Armageddon.
Revelation 16:12 says: “The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up to prepare the way for the kings from the East.”
They furthermore cited Jeremiah 50:38: “A drought on her waters! They will dry up. For it is a land of idols, idols that will go mad with terror.”
That interpretation is far from universal. Climate and water experts have pointed instead to drought, groundwater pumping, dam projects, poor water management and rising demand as explanations for the falling levels.
Fact-checking outlet Check Climate Africa has said there is no scientific basis for claims that the river’s condition is caused by divine punishment.
For Iraqis living with shrinking water supplies, the immediate concern is not prophecy but access to safe water.
Sources: Daily Express, NASA, BMJ, Center for Strategic and International Studies, Check Climate Africa, Tigris River Protectors Association
