Iraqi lawmaker warns Tigris pollution affects 150,000 in Maysan

BAGHDAD, Iraq — A lawmaker from Maysan province has urged the Iraqi government to act on severe pollution in the Tigris River, warning that contamination has affected more than 150,000 residents in the Mamunah district and Salam subdistrict. Speaking at a press conference in Baghdad, Dhuha al-Sadhan, a member of the Iraqi parliament, said samples taken from the river showed pollution levels reaching 100 percent. Al-Sadhan said authorities had investigated the issue but that remedies had not been lasting. She added that residents had staged protests for years and that some officials had visited the area without resolving the problem. In the Yetimurah area, she said, cases of scabies, kidney disease and allergies had risen. The lawmaker accused a treatment plant of discharging waste and sewage into the Tigris without purification, adding that the facility had been halted because of unauthorized construction and neglect, with no operating staff or electricity on site. She called on the government to intervene immediately, open an investigation into the units responsible for the project's halt, and seek urgent support from the ministries of environment, water resources and agriculture, as well as the parliament's Human Rights Commission. The Iraqi parliament held a session in early July dedicated to discussing pollution in the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.