Iraq on Monday hit a wave of heat, while in the capital Baghdad and in the south of the country measured up to 51 degrees Celsius in the shade. According to the AFP report, TASR reports this. Iraq has 46 million inhabitants, with The country is chronically plagued by high temperatures and dry. Temperatures often climb to 52 degrees Celsius in summer, especially in July and August.
According to AFP, people in Baghdad tried to cool the fans with fine water fog, which were located at restaurants and shops. Some pedestrians have cooled their face with water and the drivers stopped at the verge to cool their cars’ engines.
According to the National Meteorological Service, temperatures in Baghdad reached and southeast of the capital 51 degrees Celsius. In the next eight provinces they measured 50 degrees. According to the Iraqi news agency, temperatures should drop slightly on Wednesday.
In recent years, Iraqis have been protesting against frequent electricity outages and lack of water that plague their daily lives. On Friday and Sunday, near Hill and Diwanija, south of Baghdad, hundreds of people protested, blocked roads and burned tires. The Iraqi Water Resources Ministry claims that this year has been one of the driest since 1933 and the water supply in the reservoirs has fallen to only eight percent of their total capacity.
The authorities in Iraq attribute a reduction in the flow rate of the rivers in part of the dams built in neighboring Iran and Turkey, Baghdad claims that these dams have significantly reduced the once massive rivers Tigris and Euphrate, whose water has been crucial for irrigation for millennia.
The heat in recent days has also affected Turkey, Where in the southeast of the country on Saturday measured the temperature record: 50.5 degrees Celsius. In Iran last week, a wave of heat disrupted water and electricity in a large part of the country.
