Cabinet approves talks with World Bank on grant for ‘Healthy Rivers’ project

BAGHDAD — The Council of Ministers has authorised Baghdad’s mayor to negotiate and sign a World Bank grant to prepare an integrated services and “Healthy Rivers” project to reduce pollution in the country’s waterways.

The decision was taken at the cabinet’s 20th regular session on Saturday evening. The Foreign Ministry will prepare the authorisation for the prime minister’s signature. No figure was given for the grant.

Environment Minister Srwa Abdulwahid said this week that ministries and state institutions would have no more than a year to finish projects addressing pollution in the Tigris and Euphrates, and that monitoring stations were being prepared along both rivers. A parliamentary committee investigating the issue said it had identified dozens of pollution problems.

Untreated sewage is the main source. In April sewage from the Rustamiyah drains polluted the Diyala River before it reached the Tigris southeast of Baghdad, forcing emergency drinking-water deliveries, contributing to the shutdown of treatment plants in northern Wasit and killing large numbers of fish in floating farms between Suwayrah and north of Kut. The Environment Ministry has called for treatment plants in every city, saying more than 2 billion cubic metres of wastewater a year could be treated and recovered rather than discharged. Baghdad is expanding its network, including a 105,000-cubic-metre-a-day plant at Rustamiyah and planned projects on both banks.