Water minister says river pollution can be fixed with everyone’s help

BAGHDAD — Water Resources Minister Muthanna al-Tamimi said cleaning up the Tigris and Euphrates is “not impossible” but needs the government, parliament, the judiciary and the religious authority working together, days after a parliamentary committee called conditions in the rivers catastrophic.

“Through combined efforts and the attention of the presidencies of the Council of Ministers and the Council of Representatives, as well as the judiciary and the religious authority, there will be effective steps to improve the environmental situation in the Tigris and Euphrates rivers,” he told the Iraqi News Agency. The prime minister had told the environment and water ministries to identify pollution sources, and “the governorates most affected by pollution in the Tigris and Euphrates rivers are the southern governorates,” he said.

The committee’s chairman, Yousif al-Kalabi, said last week it had found dozens of pollution problems associated with illnesses including cancer and kidney failure. It is preparing recommendations including a declaration of maximum emergency, a national clean-up campaign led by the prime minister, changes to environmental law and tougher penalties. The environment minister has given ministries no more than a year to finish pollution projects, and the cabinet has authorised Baghdad’s mayor to negotiate a World Bank grant for a “Healthy Rivers” project.