A 7-year failure: Human Rights Commission in Iraq’s Basra on desalination project

A 7-year failure: Human Rights Commission in Iraq’s Basra on desalination project
2025-06-29 21:33

Shafaq News – Basra

The Iraqi High Commission for Human Rights in Basra on Sunday warned of an escalating humanitarian disaster as the province faces its “worst” drinking water crisis in 80 years.

Speaking to Shafaq News, Mehdi Al-Tamimi, director of the Commission’s Basra office, criticized officials for repeatedly touting a mega-desalination project whenever the crisis worsens, yet “failing” to deliver meaningful progress for seven straight years.

He urged parliament to step up oversight, calling on Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani to intervene before Basra faces what he described as an “irreversible catastrophe.”

Earlier today, Basra Governor Asaad Al-Eidani told our agency that construction on the long-delayed seawater desalination plant would finally begin, calling it the province’s “strategic solution.”

While blaming the crisis on falling Tigris River flows, the near-total stoppage of the Euphrates, and Gulf saltwater intrusion into the Shatt al-Arab, Al-Eidani claimed all approvals had been secured with Baghdad and that al-Sudani supported the project. “Once operational, the facility is expected to produce more than one million cubic meters of potable water per day, enough to meet Basra’s entire demand.”

Meanwhile, Interior Minister Abdul Amir Al-Shammari ordered the dispatch of 100 water tankers to distribute free drinking water as an emergency measure.

Soaring salinity has already contaminated water supplies from Basra’s northern districts to its center and southern outskirts, rendering it unfit for people or livestock. Rising animal deaths and publicanger have sparked fears of a broader environmental and social collapse.

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