development
plans by Turkey for the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers

Climate: mostly desert; mild to cool winters with dry, hot, cloudless
summers; northern mountainous regions along Iranian and Turkish
borders experience cold winters with occasionally heavy snows which
melt in early spring, sometimes causing extensive flooding in central
and southern Iraq

Terrain: mostly broad plains; reedy marshes along Iranian border in
south; mountains along borders with Iran and Turkey

Natural resources: petroleum, natural gas, phosphates, sulfur

Land use:
arable land: 12%
permanent crops: 1%
meadows and pastures: 9%
forest and woodland: 3%
other: 75%

Irrigated land: 25,500 sq km (1989 est)

Environment:
current issues: government water control projects have drained most of
the inhabited marsh areas west of Al Qurnah by drying up or diverting
the feeder streams and rivers; a once sizable population of Shi'a
Muslims, who have inhabited these areas for thousands of years, has
been displaced; furthermore, the destruction of the natural habitat
poses serious threats to the area's wildlife populations; inadequate
supplies of potable water; development of Tigris-Euphrates Rivers
system contingent upon agreements with upstream riparian Turkey; air
and water pollution; soil degradation (salinization) and erosion;
desertification
natural hazards: duststorms, sandstorms, floods
international agreements: party to - Law of the Sea, Nuclear Test Ban;
signed, but not ratified - Environmental Modification

@Iraq:People

Population: 20,643,769 (July 1995 est.)

Age structure:
0-14 years: 48% (female 4,850,028; male 5,009,513)
15-64 years: 49% (female 5,021,710; male 5,125,191)
65 years and over: 3% (female 338,790; male 298,537) (July 1995 est.)

Population growth rate: 3.72% (1995 est.)

Birth rate: 43.6 births/1,000 population (1995 est.)

Death rate: 6.82 deaths/1,000 population (1995 est.)

Net migration rate: 0.39 migrant(s)/1,000 population (1995 est.)

Infant mortality rate: 62.4 deaths/1,000 live births (1995 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
total population: 66.52 years
male: 65.54 years
female: 67.56 years (1995 est.)

Total fertility rate: 6.56 children born/woman (1995 est.)

Nationality:
noun: Iraqi(s)
adjective: Iraqi

Ethnic divisions: Arab 75%-80%, Kurdish 15%-20%, Turkoman, Assyrian or
other 5%

Religions: Muslim 97% (Shi'a 60%-65%, Sunni 32%-37%)