Iraq - Environment
As far as the environment of Iraq is concerned, there have been government water control projects drained most of the inhabited marsh areas east of An Nasiriyah by drying up or diverting the feeder streams and rivers; a once sizable population of Marsh Arabs, who inhabited these areas for thousands of years, has been displaced; furthermore, the destruction of the natural habitat poses serious threats to the area's wildlife populations; inadequate supplies of potable water; soil degradation (salination) and erosion; desertification; military and industrial infrastructure has released heavy metals and other hazardous substances into the air, soil, and groundwater; major sources of environmental damage are effluents from oil refineries, factory and sewage discharges into rivers, fertilizer and chemical contamination of the soil, and industrial air pollution in urban areas. As for nvironment - international agreements, we have; Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Nuclear Test Ban, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands.
About the environment of Iraq
| Climate | We have mostly desert; mild to cool winters with dry, hot, cloudless summers; northern mountainous regions along Iranian and Turkish borders experience cold winters with occasionally heavy snows that melt in early spring, sometimes causing extensive flooding in central and southern Iraq |
|---|---|
| Revenue from forest resources | 0% of GDP (2018 est.) |
| Revenue from coal | 0% of GDP (2018 est.) |
| Waste and recycling | Municipal solid waste generated annually: 13.14 million tons (2015 est.) |
| Total renewable water resources | 89.86 billion cubic meters (2020 est.) |
| Major rivers (by length in km) | Euphrates river mouth (shared with Turkey[s], Syria, and Iran) - 3,596 km; Tigris river mouth (shared with Turkey[s], Syria, and Iran) - 1,950 km; the Tigris and Euphrates join to form the Shatt al Arab note – [s] after country name indicates river source; [m] after country name indicates river mouth |
| Total water withdrawal | |
| Municipal | 6.9 billion cubic meters (2020 est.) |
| Industrial | 5.49 billion cubic meters (2020 est.) |
| Agricultural | 44.23 billion cubic meters (2020 est.) |
| Air pollutants | |
| Particulate matter emissions | 39.29 micrograms per cubic meter (2019 est.) |
| Carbon dioxide emissions | 190.06 megatons (2016 est.) |
| Methane emissions | 17.44 megatons (2020 est.) |
| Land Use | |
| Agricultural land | 18.1% (2018 est.) |
| Agricultural land: arable land | arable land: 8.4% (2018 est.) |
| Agricultural land: permanent crops | permanent crops: 0.5% (2018 est.) |
| Agricultural land: permanent pasture | permanent pasture: 9.2% (2018 est.) |
| Forest | 1.9% (2018 est.) |
| Other | 80% (2018 est.) |
| Urbanization | |
| Urban population | 71.6% of total population (2023) |
| Rate of urbanization | 2.91% annual rate of change (2020-25 est.) |
| Major urban areas (Pop) | 7.711 million BAGHDAD (capital), 1.792 million Mosul, 1.448 million Basra, 1.075 million Kirkuk, 958,000 Najaf, 897,000 Erbil (2023). |
All Important Facts about Iraq
Want to know more about Iraq? Check all different factbooks for Iraq below.
