Water levels across parts of the Euphrates have fallen dramatically in recent years (Picture: AFP via Getty Images)
For a mere river, the Euphrates has developed a surprisingly dramatic reputation down the years.
Civilisations rose alongside it. Multiple religions wrote about it. And the Book of Revelation is said to suggest it eventually dries up shortly before the apocalypse arrives.
So you can see why some folk are quite concerned given scientists now think that large parts of the giant river could disappear within a couple of decades.
In fact, it’s a turn of events that is pretty unwelcome news to a lot of people.
Climate scientists say worsening droughts are putting the historic river under growing pressure (Picture: AFP via Getty Images)
The Euphrates runs through Turkey, Syria and Iraq and is the longest river in Western Asia.
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For thousands of years it helped feed cities, water crops, and sustain and encourage trade routes across what’s often called ‘the cradle of civilisation’.
Large parts of formative human history basically set up camp around the thing. Now though, researchers say the iconic river is shrinking fast.
Climate-driven droughts, rising temperatures and the unrelenting demand for fresh water have all combined to absolutely hammer the basin in recent decades.
One recent warning suggested the Euphrates could effectively dry out by 2040 if conditions keep getting worse. Which would be catastrophic for the millions and millions of people who still rely on it every day for water and agriculture.
The Euphrates has supported towns, trade and entire civilisations for thousands of years (Picture: AFP via Getty Images)
It’s also not brilliant optics for anyone already nervous about world-ending biblical prophecies.
That’s because the book of Revelation quite vividly describes the river drying up before a final great conflict that’s linked to Armageddon.
The Euphrates has carried a fairly heavy load of biblical baggage for some time, in fact. The ancient and now in-danger waterway appears in both Genesis and Revelation, two of the book’s more famous chapters.
One particularly dramatic verse in the end-of-times Revelation chapter describes the river drying up after an angel pours out one of the symbolic ‘seven bowls’ of judgment.
Researchers have warned that rising temperatures, climate change and relentless demand for freshwater are accelerating the crisis (Picture: AFP via Getty Images)
The verse reads: ‘The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates and its water was dried up to prepare the way for the kings from the East.’
For centuries now, scholars have argued over whether the particular passage from The New Testament should be taken literally, symbolically or somewhere in between.
In the ancient world, the river acted as a major natural barrier against invading forces from the east, so the passage describes its disappearance as clearing the way for armies and rulers to advance toward a final conflict often associated with Armageddon. Here’s hoping The Bible got that part wrong.
Away from prophecy, the real-world numbers are alarming enough on their own. Studies conducted using satellite imaging suggest that the Euphrates river basin has lost more than 34 cubic miles of freshwater since 2003, Daily Mail reports.
The river still provides water for millions of people across a number of countries (Picture: AFP via Getty Images)
Researchers are saying that things became especially severe after a major drought in 2007, when water levels dropped sharply and parts of the wider region never really and truly recovered.
A few years back, Jay Famiglietti, a hydrologist and professor at the University of California, Irvine, said: ‘The rate was especially striking after the 2007 drought. Meanwhile, demand for freshwater continues to rise and the region does not coordinate its water management because of different interpretations of international laws.’
The crisis is already causing some pretty serious knock-on effects across Iraq, where access to clean water has become increasingly difficult in some areas.
It’s no longer just an environmental problem discussed in reports and conferences either. It’s affecting public health in very immediate and obvious ways.
A report published in the British Medical Journal found that diseases linked to unsafe water are spreading as conditions worsen in Iraq. Communities that once depended on the river are now dealing with shortages, pollution and collapsing infrastructure all at once.
The Euphrates occupies a unique place in both human history and biblical tradition (Picture: REUTERS)
Naseer Baqar, a climate activist and field coordinator at the Tigris River Protectors Association in Iraq, told the BMJ: ‘Diarrhoea, chicken pox, measles, typhoid fever, and cholera are currently spreading across Iraq because of the water crisis, and the government no longer provides vaccines to its citizens.’
Long before climate scientists started monitoring the Euphrates from space, the river already occupied a rather hefty place in religious history. Genesis names it as one of the four rivers that are connected to the Garden of Eden.
According to the biblical account, Eden’s waters split into four rivers: the Tigris, Euphrates, Pishon and Gihon. The first two still exist today. The other pair seemingly vanished into history thousands of years ago.
And while social media has inevitably seized on the Revelation angle, scientists are focused on something far more immediate. One of the world’s most important rivers is shrinking in plain sight and millions of people are already living with the consequences. And it could be about to get a whole lot worse.
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