Drought-hit and drained by dams upstream, Iraq’s once-mighty rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates, are suffocating below pollution from sewage to medical waste.
In a rustic the place half of the inhabitants lacks secure ingesting water, in keeping with United Nations figures, state establishments bear accountability for a man-made catastrophe that turns rivers into waste dumps.
Khaled Shamal, spokesman for the Ministry of Water Sources, advised AFP, “What’s unusual about water air pollution in Iraq is that almost all authorities establishments are accountable for it.”
He warned that Iraq’s sewage community disposes of “giant portions” of wastewater into the 2 principal waterways, after superficial therapy or not treating it in any respect.
Shamal added, “Most hospitals close to the river throw their medical waste and sewage straight into it.” “It’s harmful and catastrophic.”
Soiled and unsafe water is a significant well being menace in Iraq, the place many years of battle, mismanagement and corruption have affected infrastructure, together with the water system.
Petrochemical crops, energy crops, and agricultural drainage carrying fertilizers and different toxins additional pollute Iraq’s waters.
Within the nation often known as the “Land of Two Rivers,” water air pollution has turn out to be so extreme that it has turn out to be seen with the bare eye.
Within the japanese suburbs of Baghdad, Agence France-Presse photographed a pipe emptying inexperienced, foul-smelling water into the Diyala River.
Ali Ayoub, a water specialist on the United Nations Youngsters’s Fund (UNICEF), warned that Baghdad’s two principal water therapy crops are overcrowded to twice their meant capability.
Processing amenities have been constructed to accommodate between three and 4 million folks, however no less than 9 million reside in Baghdad right this moment.
“Insufficient infrastructure, restricted programs, and weak public consciousness are the principle components contributing to the numerous deterioration in water high quality in Iraq,” Ayoub mentioned.
“Two-thirds of business and home wastewater is discharged untreated into rivers,” equal to 6 million cubic meters per day.
However he added that the Iraqi authorities is taking steps to enhance water high quality.
The federal government mentioned it will not approve tasks that could possibly be a supply of air pollution except they supply water therapy.
Ayoub mentioned it had developed a three-year plan to “strengthen the water and sanitation system” to offer “secure water, particularly for probably the most weak communities.”
The complicated’s tasks director, Aqeel Salman, advised AFP that the Medical Metropolis in Baghdad, a 3,000-bed hospital complicated on the banks of the Tigris River, just lately opened, in partnership with UNICEF, a water therapy plant.
The power started working with three items, every able to treating 200 cubic meters of waste per day. 4 further items, every with a capability of 400 cubic meters, are anticipated to be accomplished “inside two months.”
As an alternative of directing wastewater to overburdened therapy amenities in Baghdad, the medical metropolis might use the handled water for hospital gardens and fill firefighters’ tanks, Salman mentioned.
The United Nations says Iraq, which endures scorching summer time warmth and common sandstorms, is without doubt one of the 5 international locations most affected by a few of the results of local weather change.
The nation, with a inhabitants of 43 million, has suffered 4 consecutive years of extreme drought, and water shortage has turn out to be extreme.
The issue is exacerbated, in keeping with the authorities, by the dams constructed by Iraq’s neighbors Iran and Turkey, which led to a lower in water ranges within the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, which have irrigated Iraq for 1000’s of years.
Surroundings Ministry spokesman Amir Ali Hassoun mentioned that the circulate of water into Iraq “decreased considerably, which led to a rise within the focus of pollution within the water.”
Beforehand, authorities routinely opened valves to extend the river’s circulate and dilute pollution, however this technique turned not possible because of water shortages, forcing them to search for different choices.
Along with “elevating consciousness” amongst residents, Iraqi officers say they’re intently monitoring wastewater administration.
“Hospitals are required to put in wastewater therapy amenities,” Hassoun mentioned.
“We hope that 2024 would be the yr we eradicate all violations,” he mentioned, referring to hospitals dumping untreated sewage and medical waste into rivers.
In southern Iraq, water air pollution is way worse.
Hassan Al-Zuri (65 years outdated), from the southern Dhi Qar Governorate, mentioned, “Wastewater from different areas flows into the river, resulting in air pollution of the water that reaches us.”
The daddy of eight youngsters added, “Water carries ailments. We can not drink or use it in any respect.”
“We used to rely on the river for ingesting, washing and irrigation, however now we have now to purchase water.”
![Iraqi fishermen row their boat on the Euphrates River in Nasiriyah](https://d.ibtimes.com.au/en/full/1846790/iraqi-fishermen-row-their-boat-euphrates-river-nasiriyah.jpg?w=736&f=22e191197c46979784a0395c9fdfc2c4)
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![The Tigris River in central Baghdad, one of Iraq's two great rivers](https://d.ibtimes.com.au/en/full/1846791/tigris-river-central-baghdad-one-iraqs-two-mighty-rivers.jpg?w=736&f=d4b9a3738d0705a8f85a2585bf6d264b)
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![Wastewater treatment unit in the Medical City Hospital Complex in Baghdad, central Baghdad](https://d.ibtimes.com.au/en/full/1846792/wastewater-treatment-unit-baghdad-medical-city-hospital-complex-centre-baghdad.jpg?w=736&f=4a73f72e583d05d16255a197cc2734c1)
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![Iraq's dwindling rivers are already drying up, choking under the weight of medical waste and sewage pollution.](https://d.ibtimes.com.au/en/full/1846793/stricken-drought-iraqs-already-dwindling-rivers-are-suffocating-under-medical-waste-sewage.jpg?w=736&f=e3e642dcc5b5e61b9604b808523c5faa)
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![A pipe emptying pollutants into the Diyala River, east of Baghdad](https://d.ibtimes.com.au/en/full/1846794/pipe-empties-pollutants-diyala-river-east-baghdad.jpg?w=736&f=5ee00d6d44dbdb7634be827b790ae646)
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![A sandstorm hits the city of Basra in southern Iraq in November 2022](https://d.ibtimes.com.au/en/full/1846795/sandstorm-hits-iraqs-southern-city-basra-november-2022.jpg?w=736&f=1912b7ec0c7740e2fd968fd07ca69a3c)
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