From the top of the old tourist complex built on the shores of Lake Sawa in southern Iraq’s Al-Mouthanna province, the desert stretches as far as the eye can see. The buildings have been torn and abandoned since the US-British invasion in 2003. “There used to be water up to the banks, fish and birds. We came to swim, have a picnic and take a boat ride on the lake,” recalls wistfully Abdallah, a 40-year-old taxi driver who traveled from Samawa, the neighboring town, to take advantage of the tranquility of the central location the daytime. Today, the entire ecosystem of Sawa is threatened with extinction.
In April the lake dried up completely. It formed near the Euphrates River at the western end more than five thousand years ago from the fertile valley of Mesopotamia that stretches to the Tigris, the cradle of the Sumerian civilization that brought writing and agriculture to the world. At the beginning of summer the water reappeared. But of the lake, fed by the only water table rising through fissures and fissures in the ground, all that remains is a pond amidst a gaping crater five by two kilometers. “Lake Sawa only makes up 5% or 10% of its surface initial. He will never return to his previous level. If we can at least preserve this area, that’s an achievement,” says Youssef Jaber, environmental officer for Al-Mouthanna province.
Lake Sawa is only filled to 5% to 10% of its original area. In Iraq, July 6, 2022. LAURENCE GEAI / MYOP FOR “THE WORLD”
For a long time, Lake Sawa remained stable. ” It is very low, six meters above sea level and 200 meters below the surrounding desert plateaus, allowing groundwater to be collected from Syria and Saudi Arabia,” explains Ali Hanoush. an agricultural expert and former member of the Al-Mouthanna Regional Council. The unique site has been protected by the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands since 2014. Located in an area of salt flats, formed on silty rocks and surrounded by gypsum barriers, it normally acts as a climate regulator against the region’s creeping desertification. Its waters were home to shrimp and small fish that fed migratory birds that stopped by its shores, including endangered species such as the imperial eagle, Houbara bustard and teal.
images of devastation
The water level began to drop in 2015. “There are causes related to climate change. It has not rained in Samawa for three years and temperatures sometimes exceed 50°C. Small earthquakes closed the springs that fed the lake,” says Youssef Jaber. Local human activities are also responsible. The lack of water in the region is intensifying competition between industrialists, farmers and breeders for appropriation of the precious resource. “Wells have been illegally dug in the surrounding desert for agricultural projects and factories such as cement and salt works. They drain a lot of water from the water table that feeds the lake, especially the salt pans,” the local official continues.
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