ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Baghdad municipality on Tuesday denied claims that 90 percent of Tigris’ water is unusable due to contamination, rejecting a previous statement by the provincial council of the Iraqi capital that human waste and untreated water flow have made irreparable damage to the river.
"There are no official or precise statistics confirming that 90 percent of the Tigris water is polluted,” Baghdad municipality spokesperson Uday al-Jandil, told Rudaw, maintaining that such statements are not derived from credible sources and that its water is usable.
Jandil’s statement came in response to remarks made by Ali al-Amri, member of Baghdad’s provincial council, who said earlier on Tuesday that between 80 to 90 percent of Tigris water is polluted and it is neither fit for drinking, husbandry, nor agriculture, according to state-run Sabah newspaper.
In response to the claims, Jandil said the water coming out of Baghdad’s treatment plants “is completely safe to drink, according to laboratory results and the standards of both the [Iraqi] Ministry of Health and the World Health Organization.”
He further alleged that around 5,000 cubic meters of raw, untreated sewage flows daily into the river, in addition to hazardous waste from medical facilities located on the riverbanks.
He stated that the municipality works with the environment ministry on “an urgent and strategic plan to halt the dumping of waste into the river,” alluding to the soon-to-be-opened water treatment plants across Tigris riverbanks that wield a total of nearly 700,000 cubic meters.
Of note, Rudaw released a report on Sunday showing the mass of untreated water from Baghdad homes and hospitals pouring from the sewage pipes and directly into the Tigris river.
Contamination has turned the color of the water entirely black, resulting in foul odors and discouraging visitors from approaching the riverbanks.
Amir Ali, spokesperson for the environment ministry, pressed the Baghdad municipality for action.
“There is pressure to implement urgent solutions and install filters to reduce pollutants,” he told Rudaw, adding that authorities are also being urged to speed up work on sewage infrastructure and wastewater treatment facilities.
Malik Mohammed contributed to this report from Erbil, Kurdistan Region.
