Iraq's 'Garden of Eden' waterway facing catastrophe
Basra, Iraq (AFP) Sept 9, 2009 – Iraqis living alongside the ancient Shatt al-Arab waterway, the site local legend says of the Garden of Eden, face an environmental catastrophe because of massive dams built by neighbouring Iran. A vibrant fresh water lifeline teeming with fish has become a salty, polluted channel which is driving people away from its banks and where fishermen struggle to make a living, local residents and officials say. At the centre of the dispute is the Karoun river, which this year has been completely staunched by Iran to stop its water feeding into the Shatt al-Arab just above the Iranian oil city of Abadan, local people say. “Iran completely cut the water from the Karoun and diverted it to the Bahman Shir,” an Iranian river, said Oun Dhiab, director of the Iraqi National Centre for Hydro Resources. … The loss of the fresh torrent that the Karoun brought down from the Iranian mountains has left Iraqi fishermen working in salt-filled waters. Their ever-shrinking catches are also being polluted by toxic emissions from Iran’s Abadan refinery, its largest, on the opposite bank. … The lack of fresh water and the pollution has led fishermen in southern Iraq to break long-standing rules. “The fishing was very good a few years ago,” said Adnan Ali Qassim, a father of eight who lives in the port of Al-Faw, home to an estimated 10,000 fishermen. “There was no fishing during the reproduction season,” said the tall 38-year-old, wearing a traditional white dishdasha. “But fishermen are not respecting the law and are now using illegal methods, such as explosions and electric shocks.” His livelihood has suffered badly. “We were getting dozens of tonnes of fish per day, but now the number cannot be more than five or six tonnes, all because of the pollution and the increased salt level,” Qassim said. Mohsen Abdul Hai, an agriculture adviser to the governor of Basra province, blamed Iran both for stopping the Karoun’s waters from reaching its mouth and for allowing the Abadan refinery to pollute the Shatt al-Arab. “Fish are dying because of it, and it is also causing the death of large numbers of animals from blindness after drinking salt water,” he said. …
