Water resources shared between Iran and Iraq are becoming a serious source of tension between the two countries. An article (Farsi) published yesterday on Iran’s Tabnak site gives an Iranian take on the increasingly sharp conflict over claims that runoff from Iranian oil refineries and petrochemical plants at Abadan is polluting the shared waterway, known to Persian speakers as the Arvand River and Arabs as the Shatt al-Arab.
Tabnak’s efforts to paint the Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya story as biased (translated excerpts below) seem to belie a genuine Iranian sensitivity to Iraqi public opinion, particularly in the heavily Shia south. In October, Al-Jazeera reported on an Iranian shipment of fresh water to Basra citizens, no doubt also an attempt at damage control with Iraqis. While Iran hardly bats an eye taking on the west over its disputed nuclear program, Tehran seems much more sensitive to criticism closer to home.
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Iraqis blame Arvand River Pollution on Iran
Medical and university officials in the Iraqi province of Basra have accused Iran of polluting the Arvand River. According to the Tabnak correspondent in Iraq, medical and university officials in Basra have accused Iran of polluting the waters of the Arvand River. These officials announced that “Very dangerous petrochemical poisons from the Abadan refinery running into the Arvand river, and entering Iraqi waters have seriously polluted the Shatt al-Arab / Arvand River to the point where its name should be changed to “The Poisoned River.”
Dr. Malik Hassan, a representative of the Basra Ocean Sciences University, stated: “The deadly poisons that have entered the Arvand River and Shatt al-Arab waterway in Iraq are very dangerous, and we have seen an increase in cancers, and diseases of the liver, spleen, digestive tract, and other serious diseases in the southern parts of Iraq, especially Siba, Sayhan, Faw, Zabir, and Basra.”
Despite the pollution and cancer cases of more than 50,000 people in Basra as a result of American use of depleted uranium weapons in the 1991 and 2003 wars, Dr. Hassan asked high-ranking Iraqi officials to put pressure on Iran, and stop rising pollution levels in the Arvand River.
Likewise, Dr. Faris ‘Omara, a doctor in this southern Iraqi province, speaking on an al-Arabiya talk show stated, “With its two petrochemical and oil facilities on the Abadan shores, Iran has poisoned the Arvand River, resulting in the increased the deaths of fish.”…
This [Al-Arabiya] report was broadcast without any mention of the massive pollution that flows from the Iraqi side of the Arvand River. Iraqis, with their own worn down petrochemical plants, have been severely polluting the two waterways that run into the Persian Gulf since the early 1990s….
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