ISIL uses Iraq dam to cut flow of water

Areas held by government are affected

Militants with ISIL have reduced the amount of water flowing to government-held areas in Iraq’s western Anbar province, an official said Thursday, the latest in the vicious war as Iraqi forces struggle to claw back ground held by the extremists in the Sunni heartland.

It’s not the first time water has been used as a weapon of war in Mideast conflicts and in Iraq in particular. Earlier this year, the Islamic State group reduced the flow through another lock outside the militant-held town of Fallujah, also in Anbar province. But the extremists soon reopened it after criticism from residents.

ISIL captured Ramadi, the provincial capital of Anbar, last month, marking its most significant victory since a U.S.-led coalition began an air campaign against the extremists last August. Earlier last year, ISIL had blitzed across much of western and northern Iraq, capturing key Anbar cities and also Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city that lies to the north of Baghdad.

Also Thursday, UN officials urgently called for almost US$498 million in donations to provide shelter, food, water and other life-saving services for the next six months to Iraqis displaced or affected by the fighting between government forces and ISIL.

The reduced flow of water through the militant-held dam on the Euphrates River will threaten irrigation systems and water treatment plants in nearby areas controlled by troops and tribes opposed to the extremist group, provincial council member Taha Abdul-Ghani said in an interview.

Abdul-Ghani said there would be no immediate effect on Shiite areas in central and southern Iraq, saying water is being diverted to those areas from the Tigris River.

The United Nations said Wednesday it was looking into reports that ISIL had reduced the flow of water through the al-Warar dam.

“The use of water as a tool of war is to be condemned in no uncertain terms,” Stéphane Dujarric, the spokesman for the UN secretary general, told reporters. “These kinds of reports are disturbing, to say the least.”

He said the UN and humanitarian partners will try to “fill in the gaps” to meet water needs for the affected population.

In Brussels, UN officials said Thursday that the needs of Iraqis affected by the fighting are huge and growing, with more than eight million people requiring immediate support, and potentially 10 million by the end of 2015.

Lise Grande, the UN’s humanitarian co-ordinator for Iraq, said the aid operation, which she called one of the most complex and volatile in the world, was hanging by a thread.