UN: Tigris and Euphrates rivers could completely dry up by 2040

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Iraq News      
UN: Tigris and , rivers could completely dry up by 2040
Tuesday, March 22, 2011 12:18 GMT

Fifty percent of water resources are wasted in Iraq, where six million people have no access to clean water, the United Nations said on Monday, the eve of World Water Day.

"Iraq faces difficulties in meeting the target of 91 percent of households using a safe drinking water supply by 2015," due to decades of conflict, sanctions and neglect, the UNICEF children's fund said in a statement.

"One in five or around six million Iraqis do not have access to safe water, of which the vast majority are in rural areas," it added.

The UN cited an international report which recently warned that the Tigris and Euphrates rivers could completely dry up by 2040. The accelerating decline of water supplies and increasing demand threaten to bring Iraq closer to the water poverty threshold, the report cautioned.

http://www.alsumaria.tv/en/Iraq-News/1-61930-UN:-Tigris-and-Euphrates-rivers-could-completely-dry-up-by-2040.html