Waterkeepers Iraq participated in The Guan Eden conference in Baghdad arranged by Goethe Institute and Humat Dijlah.
 
The aim of the conference was to network between activists and environmental experts, as well as government agencies such as the Ministry of Environment and Water Resources, and to discuss ways to increase environmental awareness in Iraq.
 
Framework of the Guan Eden conference was prepared on 6 and 7 of April in Baghdad discussing the following topics:
- The role of women in protecting the environment
- The effects of climate change on Iraq
- The experience of civil society organizations in raising awareness against hunting endangered birds
- Integrated management of wetlands
- Deep discussions about the Paris Agreement
- Biodiversity
- Water pollution
 
The conference was attended by environmental experts, activists and government officials considering all health measurements.

For too long, low-income, indigenous and marginalized populations have been put in harm’s way for the sake of big business and profits. All citizens of the world should have access to swimmable, drinkable and fishable water. Too often, communities that are denied these rights face daunting challenges in standing up to Big Agriculture, King Coal and their friends in power. – Marc Yaggi, Executive Director, Waterkeeper Alliance.

As part of the Human and Environmental Security in Iraq in Covid Time porject, Waterkeepers Iraq conducted an online training for environmentalists and activists.

On the course of three days from 25th of February to 27th, two and half hours each at 5pm till 7:30pm, the online training was conducted focusing on three main topics which were COVID-19 itself, Prevention Methods and campaigning and also It’s Psychological effects.
 
The Participants were asked to fill a google form one week prior to the scheduled time, the forms gave info about their location, education and background. We chose activists and enthusiasts based on the filled forms and 20 participants were selected.

The exhibition showcasing photography and poems from the project “Reconnecting with Out Lifeblood” opened on 13th November 2020.
The photos and poetry told layers of stories about the livelihood of people living along the Tigris River and it’s tributaries from North of Iraq to the South. The photos told stories of lives intricately connected with the rivers and Iraqi marshes and explored some of the destruction from pollution, sewage, overfishing and unsustainable oil production.
 
The opening was a successful day with strict measures to avoid any possible spread of COVID-19, and was well attended.

A photography exhibition visualizes a journey from Kurdistan's mountains through rivers to the marshlands in Iraq.

Facebook Event link: https://fb.me/e/3hM1NnEzc

Details:- 
The exhibition starts on November 13, 2020 at 3:00 PM
Location: Metrography Gallery / Behind Daik Park
​
Note:-
- We will follow all necessary safety instructions during the exhibition.
- The exhibition is open for 10 days.

As a result, those charged by the government with leading environmental protection measures are deprived of dedicated and steady financing streams that are “more than enough to provide support” for the Board’s operations and allow it to expand its activities, former head of the Environmental Board Hallo Mustafa Askari told NRT in an interview.
Instead the money goes directly to the KRG’s Ministry of Finance and Economy, which rarely allocates it back to the Board.
“Our laboratories are not up to date. We need new technologies to inspect factories and cities. We have one air quality monitoring station in Sulaimani and one in Erbil…both of which are out of operation due to broken parts,” Askari said.
“It’s a disaster,” he added.

Waterkeepers Iraq, Humat Dijla, X-line and OCSO organized this Get Together (Conference) for environmental lovers to bring in Organizations, groups and individual that are working within this sector, with the focus on how we can help the environment together with more efforts, better rearrangement of ourselves, and better cooperation and negotiation with each other.

It’s well known that any project for the betterment of the environment in Sulaimani and Kurdistan specially and Iraq in general is facing a lot of struggles and obstacles, even tho the projects are willing and aiming to improve the nature, wildlife, and life in general. 
And also, pollution is getting worse day by day, and accumulating specifically in south of Iraq causing different kinds of crisis, thus we need to act all together and have a bigger impact as a force one with nature to restore our environment.

"We are as a Waterkeeper in general, globally, against dam- particularly this type of dam. The GAP (http://bianet.org/english/environment/215974-hasankeyf-initiative-these-are-the-days-of-apocalypse-for-hasankeyf-and-tigris-valley) project planned  in the 1950s Ilisu dam is only one of those 22 Dams. Ilisu dam they started very quickly because it will destroy a Kurdish village, unfortunately the history of this area is very rich, this will create bitter misery among the community not only Kurdish but all communities. WE are advocating against this dam because we don’t want this to happen, the river is uniting communities."

For the full transcript click ' Read More '