Iraqi parliament moves to address escalating Tigris, Euphrates pollution

Shafaq News- Baghdad

Iraq's parliament plans to hold a special session to address worsening pollution in the Tigris and Euphrates rivers amid growing concerns over its impact on public health, ecosystems, and the country's water resources.

According to the Iraq Green Observatory, Baez Ismail, the most senior member of parliament's Agriculture, Water Resources, Marshes, and Environment Committee, revealed that the committee will meet after the current legislative recess ends on July 1 before requesting an extraordinary parliamentary session attended by officials from the Environment Ministry and other relevant agencies to examine the causes of the pollution and propose corrective measures.

Calling the issue “one of Iraq's most serious environmental challenges,” Ismail warned that pollutants discharged into the Tigris and Euphrates have reached unprecedented levels, threatening nearby communities, agriculture, and aquatic life.

A specialized environmental team recently identified 54 violations and contamination hotspots along the Euphrates River between the Iraq-Syria border and Haditha Lake, environmental expert Samim Salam Abu Furat told Shafaq News earlier this month. The four-day survey, which relied on GPS mapping and satellite imagery, documented untreated sewage discharges, illegal sand quarries causing riverbank erosion, dumping of poultry waste and animal carcasses, unlicensed fish ponds, construction debris obstructing water flow, and widespread agricultural and residential encroachments along the riverbanks.

Read more: The cost of filth: Iraq among the world’s most polluted nations