Environmental Toxins: Baghdad's Drinking Water Polluted

Because the construction of a new water treatment and distribution system in Central Iraq is not progressing at an adequate rate, many civilians are stuck drinking the highly polluted water of the Tigris River. Little is being done to increase Iraqi access to drinking water and US contractors are unwilling or unable to do much to alleviate the problem. Although some of the areas of Baghdad have access to drinking water from functional water treatment plants, millions of residents are still without a clean and reliable water source.

Pollution Chokes the Tigris, a Main Source of Baghdad’s Drinking Water

Adbul Salam Abdulali works on the river. He currently works for a company that dredges the Tigris but was recently absorbed by the Ministry of Water Resources. Abdulali says that he is "married to the water. But it is too polluted now. I wish I could eat the fish, but when I cut them open, I can smell the oil." Shopkeeper Ranzi Amher Aziz echoes these worries. "The situation here is worse now than before the war. There has been no work here by the Americans to give us clean water or fix the sewage problem." The Tigris River is polluted with pesticides, fertilizers, oil, gasoline, and heavy metals.