Klingbeil, R., 2012. Water Management Challenges Under Drought Conditions. Presentation at the "Consensus Building and Awareness Workshop, Iraq Drought Risk Management Project", joint workshop of GoI, UNDP, UNESCO and UN ESCWA, 26-28 Mar 2012, Beirut, Lebanon.

1. Water Management Challenges
Under Drought Conditions
Consensus Building and Awareness Workshop,
Iraq Drought Risk Management Project
Beirut, Lebanon Ralf Klingbeil
27 March 2012 Regional Advisor Environment & Water

2. Iraq’s Perspective on Droughts?
Cornish, 2009. Australias Drought, www.slideshare.net/mrcornish/australias-drought , accessed 25 Mar 2012
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3. Outline
• Impact of Drought
• Definition and Classification of Drought
• Drought Relation to Water
• Challenges to Water Management
• Drought Relation to Climate Change
• Recommendations
• Drought: A Management Issue ?
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4. Iraq – Displacement due to Drought
IOM, July 2010
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5. Iraq – Water Needs 2008 - 2010
IOM, July 2010
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6. Arab Countries’ Water Availability and Use
www.carboun.com, 2011
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7. Water – Overall Challenges
• Status and Trends
• Availability vs. Use and Demand
• Renewable vs. Non-Renewable
• Population Growth and Agriculture
• Pollution – Reduction of Available Resources
• Virtual Water
• Water Imports and Transfers
• Desalination
• Transboundary Water and Aquifers
• ... and Climate Change
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8. Water – Key Challenges for Iraq
• Increasing population and water needs across the Tigris and
Euphrates River Basins;
• Conflicting and uncoordinated use of water across the Tigris
and Euphrates River Basins among riparian countries;
• Increasing variability and intensity of the hydrological cycles
with a special impact on droughts;
• Fast aging of a large portion of the water infrastructures across
the country (dams, irrigation and drainage systems, etc);
• Severe land degradation due to poor land management and
water quality;
• Poor practices in Water Resources Management
• Severe water sanitary issues especially in the Center-South of
country
Cattarossi, A.., 2011. SWLRI. MED INGEGNERIA s.r.l., Pres. at donor coordination meeting, 23 Nov 2011
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9. Euphrates: Quantities and Qualities
Grey, D. & Blackmore, D., 2011. Pres. at donor coordination meeting, Sep 2011
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10. Euphrates/Tigris: Salinity
Arid zone rivers: salinity increases downstream
• Storage construction over past 30 years reduced
“dilution flows” reaching Iraq
• Large geological salt stores mobilised by
irrigation development
• Storages with large surface area & high
evaporation increasing river salinity levels in mid
& lower Basin
• Irrigation drainage returns bring large salt load to
river
Grey, D. & Blackmore, D., 2011. Pres. at donor coordination meeting, Sep 2011
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11. Climate Change: Potential Impacts
• Coupled with excessive population growth and
rising living standards,
climate change will exacerbate water scarcity
conditions across the Arab world.
• Persistent reduction of total annual precipitation
coupled with rising temperatures will reduce
water availability.
• Higher temperatures will influence water quality
and may cause additional sanitation problems
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12. Climate Change: Potential Impacts
• Changes in water availability
– Increase system resilience through surface / underground storage and transfer capacity
– Shift form surface to underground storage where applicable to reduce evaporation losses
• Urban drainage networks - new dimensions
– Sewage systems, storm runoff
• Desalination - higher temperature in feed water may increase algae growth and risk
of closure of plant intake
– Improve intake procedures
– Increase storage and transfer capacity
• Infrastructure failures
– Higher flooding intensities, frequencies
– Higher temperatures,
• Changes in hydraulic patterns and temperatures
– Loss of snowpack storage in Lebanon, Oman, etc.
• Groundwater recharge changes, impacts on spring and river discharges
– Increase managed aquifer recharge schemes
– Better monitoring and scientific understanding of recharge mechanism for predictive planning
of alternatives, before springs cease
• Seawater level rise
– Increasing groundwater salinisation
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13. Changes in RCM projections of seasonal
precipitation (mm/season) across the region
Mar to May 2070 Sep to Nov 2070
Hemming, D. et al., 2007. Environmental Stresses from Detailed Climate Model Simulations for the
Middle East and Gulf Regions. Defense and Security Implications of Climate Change – Gulf Region
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14. Changes in RCM projections of seasonal
precipitation (mm/season) across the region
Hemming, D. et al., 2007. Environmental Stresses from Detailed Climate Model Simulations for the
Middle East and Gulf Regions. Defense and Security Implications of Climate Change – Gulf Region
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15. Change in Precipitation
Hue shows change in mm/y.
Saturation / intensity shows the
change as percentage of 2005
PPTN.
Evans, J.P., 2009.
21st Century
Climate Change in the
Middle East.
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16. Change in Length of Dry Season
Evans, J.P., 2009.
21st Century
Climate Change in the
Middle East.
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17. Recommendations: Drought and Water
Water Management - No Regret Measures:
• Traditional knowledge, local scale interventions
– Small, decentralised water retention facilities to sustain
local livelihoods (e.g. water harvesting in Oman, Sudan)
– Shifting from surface to groundwater use in periods before
and during drought
• Unconventional approaches:
– Subsurface water storage, i.e. managed aquifer recharge
– More reuse of treated sewage in irrigation
• Reduce losses to avoid human made scarcity
– Reduce and remediate quality deterioration (salinity,
pollution)
– Reduce network losses in irrigation (and in urban supplies)
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18. Recommendations: Drought and Water
Coordination and Participation:
• Stakeholder mapping: Which government institutions are
addressing which functions, reduce overlap and gaps.
• Participation of and close coordination between stakeholders
in national drought monitoring and management body.
• Improve preparedness by clear split of tasks between
stakeholders and periodic reporting back to national
coordination body.
Monitoring of Precipitation, Storages vs. Long Term Averages:
• Setting up of national drought monitoring network for
precipitation, surface and groundwater resources, ...
• Development of appropriate indicators for an early warning
mechanism for upcoming drought situations at national and
sub-national level.
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19. Recommendations: Drought and Water
Resilience, Preparedness, Education at Local Level:
• Increase resilience of local population in potentially affected
areas by extension services about more drought resisting
corps and information on water rationing regulations.
• Increase preparedness for next drought by setting up
contingency plans at national and sub-national level.
Priority Setting, Compensation Schemes:
• Develop and implement clear priority system for drinking
water, before essential industries, before irrigated agriculture
for times of drought.
• Develop compensations systems prior to an upcoming
drought, esp. if water restrictions for agriculture are needed to
prioritize for drinking water.
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20. Recommendations: Drought and Water
Transboundary Challenges wrt Drought:
• Setup national coordination body for transboundary water
issues.
• Ensure close coordination of national body for transboundary
water with all relevant stakeholders / government institutions
within Iraq.
• Ensure close coordination of national body for transboundary
water with the respective institutions in the neighbouring
countries to allow in cases of drought higher emergency
release of water from upstream neighbours.
• Exchange visits to other countries in the region or countries in
similar situations globally and learn from their experiences.
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21. Three Levels of Scarcity
WB, 2007
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22. Drought: A Management Issue ?
Experiences show
• Drought can be prevented
• Drought can be mitigated
• Hardships can be minimised
• Sufferings can be reduced
If … all institutions work together at all levels
• Drought does not need to become a Disaster
• Drought can be addressed as a Management
Issue
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23. Water Management Challenges
Under Drought Conditions
Consensus Building and Awareness Workshop,
Iraq Drought Risk Management Project
Beirut, Lebanon Ralf Klingbeil
27 March 2012 Regional Advisor Environment & Water