Baghdad: Wissam Abed swims in the Tigris River to escape the oppressive summer heat and power outages in Baghdad, but as the country's rivers dry up, so does the age-old pastime. Abed was standing in the middle of the river near a bridge that connected the city's east and west sides, but the water was only up to his waist.
"Like my grandfather did before me, I currently reside in Adhamiya. The water situation in my neighbourhood along the Tigris in northern Baghdad worsens every year," the 37-year-old said.
One afternoon in July, as the temperature soared close to 50 degrees Celsius and the wind howled through the city like a hair dryer, Abed waded through the water to the centre of the ancient river.
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According to him, he visits the Tigris "to have fun and feel refreshed." A collapsed electricity sector, rising temperatures, and severe water shortages during the summer in Iraq are three examples of how various crises are converging and weighing down the lives of the country's 43 million residents.
Iraq is reportedly one of the five nations in the world most affected by some climate change effects.
Baghdad, which has a population of about 9 million, has areas where the water is still deep enough for kids to enjoy jumping into from brick mounds. However, in other places, fresh earthen islets protrude from the river's centre.
Abed, a worker for the Ministry of Electricity, claimed, "In the evening, when we go home, there is no water or electricity." I "came to swim in the river at one in the morning before returning" to my house last night.
Iraqi authorities claim that upstream dam construction by Turkiye and Iran has impacted the amount of water that runs in rivers through Iraq in addition to the country's declining rainfall levels.
Iraq, which is abundant in oil, imports Iranian gas for a third of its energy requirements after being devastated by decades of conflict and international sanctions. Additionally, it has crumbling infrastructure and is plagued by widespread corruption. In most cases, power outages can last up to ten hours per day. But the public electricity supply gets worse each summer as the temperature rises. Families who can do so connect their homes to nearby generators to supplement the inadequate supply. However, according to authorities, Iraqi power plants would need to produce more than 32,000 megawatts per day to end power outages.
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Iraq produced 26,000 MW per day on average this year for the first time until the beginning of July, when production fell as a result of Iran cutting off the gas taps over 11 billion euros in unpaid bills.
The Ministry of Electricity announced on Friday that an agreement had been reached and that electricity production had increased to exceed 24,000 MW.
Iraq is having a scorching weekend, according to preliminary data from the World Meteorological Organisation, despite the fact that the first week of July was the world's warmest on record.
On Saturday, temperatures are expected to rise to 47 degrees Celsius in Baghdad and 50 degrees in the far south's Basra.