Background
In Iraq, various long term challenges related to water shortages and flooding have raised a new set of cross-sectoral issues with implications for WASH interventions, yet detailed information on water surface areas is limited. To support the WASH Cluster in Iraq in the coordination of strategic planning regarding the emergency risk response,
REACH conducted a preliminary precipitation analysis of the Euphrates-Tigris Basin, as part of a wider water surface change analysis.
Basin precipitation distribution
Despite Iraq covering nearly half of the Euphrates-Tigris basin (47%) the country receives just a small fraction (15%) of the annual basin precipitation. Furthermore, the long-term precipitation pattern reveals that incoming rainfall is mostly concentrated in the northern areas whereas the south of the country often remains dry. In contrast, neighbouring countries such as Turkey, Iran and Syria overall receive the main share (85%) of the annual basin precipitation, which is distributed over just 53% of the basin area. The Turkish part of the basin in particular receives the highest share of the annual basin precipitation (38%) while Turkey covers only 21% of the total basin area.