Al-Neel Flower and its Effects on Surficial Water In Iraq And Ways to Treat It

Abstract

The study aims to determine the most important damage caused by the spread of the Al-Nile flower on the water resources in Iraq and the accompanying large economic losses, especially when it spreads in the waters of dams and water reservoirs, causing the loss of a lot of water through transpiration. It comes among the ten most dangerous bushes in the world, characterized by its length its roots that sunk deeply in the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers. Al-Neel Flower threatens Iraq, where each flower can absorb four to five liters of water per day, and can dry up the water resources of one of the hottest countries in the world. This plant has spread from its original habitat in the Amazon Basin in Brazil to various regions with a suitable environment for its reproduction. It appeared in Iraq for the first time in the mid-1980s. At first glance, one can be amazed by those purple flowers and their large, bright green leaves that float on the surface of the water. Before private nurseries and shade plants in fish ponds, the research revealed that the plant, Al-Neel flower, occupies large areas of the course of the Tigris River and the streams branching from it in its section that extends from Mosul to the north of Maysan governorate, its spatial presence is concentrated to a large extent from the south of Baghdad to the Kut Dam, with a length of 280 km, while it is spatially concentrated in the course of the Euphrates River and its branches to a much lesser extent than it is in the Tigris, if it is present in the Euphrates section that extends from the south of Babylon and Karbala governorates to the north of Dhi Qar governorate.