After Forty Years of Pollution and Navigation Obstruction: “Sunken Ships” Begin to Leave Shatt al-Arab

A few meters from the shore, Abu Murtadha sits near his house, recalling images of the past and remembering the sounds of commercial cargo ships that used to cross the waters. The man seems trapped in the past, unimpressed by the seagulls landing on the banks of Shatt al-Arab or the sight of sunlight on the water’s surface.

He says his seventy years have passed in the blink of an eye, during which he has become accustomed to mimicking the lotus tree that has lived for over a hundred years. He knows that its life is about to end, and its fate is to be uprooted like the giant ship called “Amuriya” that sank loaded with oil and is now being cut into pieces in preparation for removal.

His voice tone suddenly changes as he talks about the period before the Iraq-Iran war, the peak of prosperity for commercial ships crossing Shatt al-Arab. These ships used to arrive daily at Abu al-Khaseeb district in the far south of Iraq, estimated at about twenty ships, carrying goods to the port, which were later transported by cargo workers to Baghdad governorate.

At that time, Abu Murtadha was still a young man working in carpentry at the local administration factory in the governorate. He would stand on the shore, breathing in the fresh air and enjoying the view of the clear waters full of fish.

However, “wars destroyed everything,” the man says regretfully. Bombs sank the ships and turned them into scrap metal weighing hundreds of tons, neglected and thrown into Shatt al-Arab, polluting the waters with leaking fuel and causing damage to the vital environment.

Today, as the Iraqi government has begun cutting the wrecks into pieces to dispose of them, the water has mixed with the smell of heavy fuel resulting from the cutting process.

Small pieces of fire falling on the frozen fuel in the ship cause smoke emissions that “pollute the air,” Abu Murtadha explains while wiping his reddened eyes due to the smoke, saying, “I can no longer smell anything as I have long been used to inhaling these suffocating odors. If it weren’t for my eye sensitivity, I wouldn’t have realized the reality.”

The General Company for Iraqi Ports announced on March 2nd its continued efforts to remove sunken ships and marine debris from the waters of Shatt al-Arab and navigation channels to ensure the movement of ships and marine vessels.

Dr. Engineer Farhan Al-Fartousi, the company’s general manager, says that the goal behind disposing of these wrecks is “to provide a safe climate for the movement of ships and boats and to show the beauty of Shatt al-Arab.” He adds that “the marine rescue department inspects the waters of Shatt al-Arab and empties it of all accumulated wrecks and marine debris.”

Hussein Al-Ziyadi, an expert in geography and developmental studies at Dhi Qar University, confirms that “the wrecks have a growing impact on the environment and can be considered one of the most important causes of environmental pollution due to the chemical materials and crude oil they contain.”

He adds, “The wrecks turn into sunken iron in the depths after weeks, but the effects of what leaked from them will remain for a longer period, especially since the tidal process in Shatt al-Arab contributes to spreading pollution and concentrating it in specific areas.”

Shatt al-Arab has been witnessing environmental deterioration for years according to local and international reports. Its waters have recorded unprecedented salinity levels, with the saline tongue extending beyond the Hartha area and moving northward due to weak water releases from neighboring countries.

Reports indicate that about 65 percent of Shatt al-Arab in Basra has become saline, and the remaining water is unfit for human and animal use.

The salinity concentration in Hartha, northeast of Basra governorate, is about (4500) on the (TDS) scale, while the permissible limit is less than (1000) on the same scale. Hartha city is located on the eastern bank of the Euphrates River, bordered by Qurna district to the north and Basra governorate center to the south, and it is 130 kilometers away from the sea.

Due to increased salinity, declining water levels in the Tigris and Euphrates, and rising pollutant levels, many fish species have disappeared from Shatt al-Arab or significantly decreased in number, including carp and shad.

Abu Murtadha points to one of the wrecks in front of him, saying, “Here are the workers cutting off the upper parts of the ship, and the lower part remains as they couldn’t lift it due to its stagnation in the water for years and its heavy weight, which is another problem that will need solutions.”

Meanwhile, Majid Ghazi Shalash, the director of the marine rescue department and senior marine engineers chief, explains, “Our department’s staff have emptied a barge loaded with wrecks in the wreck shelter area, and work is ongoing on the crane to salvage a giant wreck weighing 85 tons.” He added, “Work is underway to cut that wreck to facilitate its transfer to the wreck shelter area in Al-Maqal Port.”

Environmental experts agree that cleaning Shatt al-Arab from pollutants resulting from the wrecks requires international cooperation with Iraq, as it does not have the necessary equipment to lift giant wrecks from the bottom of the Shatt. Therefore, they suggest that Iraq should request international assistance to completely salvage them from their location and clean Shatt al-Arab from pollutants.

Abu Murtadha hopes that the campaign to remove stuck wrecks in the water and clean the Shatt will continue, saying: “We may need another forty years after removing the wrecks to restore Shatt al-Arab to what it was… but the important thing is that we have started.”

This article was produced by the Network of Climate Journalists with support from USAID.

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