AP, Baghdad , August 27, 2009 – An Iraqi lawmaker has urged Iran to allow Baghdad access to a disputed waterway between the two countries so it can battle a severe water shortage that has forced the evacuation of two villages in the south.
Iraqi officials have described the water shortage in southern Iraq as catastrophic, with rising salt levels and fresh water drying up.
The issue has raised tensions with Iran, which controls access to a key part of the waterway that provides water to the oil rich region of the southern city of Basra.
’I call on the government to act quickly and I appeal to the Iranian government … to open the river temporarily to save Basra province from a dangerous environmental and health catastrophe,’ said Basra lawmaker Wail Abdul-Latif.
About 3,000 people have been forced to evacuate because of lack of potable water, according to Abdul-Latif, who spoke Wednesday.
He said the problem has begun to affect the outskirts of Basra, where the residents also face a shortage of drinking water.
The waterway – known as Shatt al-Arab in Iraq and Arvand River in Iran – is Iraq’s only outlet to the sea. It is formed by the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, meandering south between Iran and Iraq until it spills into the northern Persian Gulf. It creates a multichannel delta as it nears the Gulf.
Iraq has accused Iran of changing the course of one of the channels, cutting off the flow of fresh water. The problem has been compounded by two years of drought.
The 1980-1988 Iraq-Iran war ended without a formal peace treaty. Because the two countries have not agreed on updated charts, there is no universal agreement on exactly where the border runs in the strategic waterway.