Iraq’s once-mighty rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates, are choking under pollution from sewage to medical waste, trickled by drought and diminished by upstream dams.
According to UN estimates, half the nation’s population does not have access to safe drinking water; this man-made calamity, which is converting rivers into rubbish dumps, is the fault of governmental institutions.
“What is strange about water pollution in Iraq is that most government institutions are responsible for it,” Khaled Shamal, the ministry of water resources spokesman, told AFP.
He warned that Iraq’s sewage network dumps “large quantities” of wastewater into the two major waterways, after superficial treatment or none at all.
“Most hospitals near a river dump their medical waste and sewage straight into it,” Shamal added. “It is dangerous and catastrophic.”
In Iraq, where decades of conflict, mismanagement, and corruption have taken a toll on infrastructure, particularly the water system, dirty and hazardous water poses a serious health risk.
Iraq’s water is further contaminated by petrochemical manufacturers, power plants, and agricultural drainage systems that carry poisons and fertilizers.
