The president of the Iraqi Red Crescent Society (IRCS), Dr Yassin Al-Mamouri, has asked the major countries of the world to compensate those affected by climate change.
Al-Mamouri who made this known during his address at the United Nations Climate Conference (COP 27) in Egypt said that Iraq’s participation was informed by the need to let the world know the impact of climate change across communities in the country.
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“The regions of southern and central Iraq in Sumer and Akkad, which witnessed the formation of humanity’s first civilizations on this planet, have experienced a significant and direct impact, as the Earth’s surface began to change with the disappearance of a massive water body, the marshland mass, on which a great number of Iraqis reside and practice fishing, agriculture, and cattle rearing, one of the oldest occupations in human history,“ Al-Mamouri said.
Al-Mamouri pointed out that the people were beginning to lose their only source of income because of climate change, drought and the disappearance of water bodies because the marsh areas require a moist environment for their animals.
He maintained that although Iraq remains one of the world’s top oil exporters, it is helpless in the face of the devastation caused by flooding and other climate-related disasters.
He said, “we regret that these people have begun to abandon and leave these locations since there are no chances for continuity and permanency in these regions.”
Story was adapted from reliefweb.
