- BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Plunging
under the olive green surface of the Tigris, worshippers from an obscure
sect emerge spurting water from their mouths.
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- A little way downstream, a torrent of sewage gushes into
the river as it flows through the Iraqi capital Baghdad. A stench like
rotten eggs wafts through the air.
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- Described in legend as flowing from a source near the
Garden of Eden, the Tigris is now choking with modern-day pollution that
researchers say puts millions of Iraqis at risk.
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- "Basically, it's an open sewer," said Anna
Bachmann, an independent U.S. researcher who began sampling water for testing
on Sunday. "Everything and anything is getting in the river."
-
- Experts from the Iraqi government and environmental groups
had hoped to conduct the first survey of the section flowing through Baghdad
since last year's U.S.-led invasion.
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- But river police stopped them short citing security concerns.
A short cruise still reveals a catalog of culprits pumping waste into the
Tigris -- and a glimpse of the rich history of a country said to be the
birthplace of civilization.
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- Shrugging off concerns of environmentalists, white-robed
worshippers of the Sabea Mandean Nation, a relic of the ancient Gnostic
religions, took their weekly dip in the Tigris to purify their souls.
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- Environmentalists say Iraq's interim government must
clean up a river that provides drinking water for Baghdad and much of southern
Iraq, saying risks should not be overlooked even though the leadership
is focused on crushing insurgents.
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- It is a huge challenge. Waterborne diseases drift downstream
with raw sewage while Iraqi officials fear industrial waste may prove even
more toxic.
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- At first, gently flowing waters flanked by banks of reeds
might seem like a haven from the traffic jams snarling Baghdad -- not to
mention the risk of car bombings or mortar attacks -- but the river's appearance
belies unsavory contents.
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- "You see people throwing things into the river,"
said Bara Sharaf al-Deen, a government official who monitors water in Baghdad.
"There are no controls," she said, using a surgical glove when
dipping a sampling bottle.
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- BLACK GLOBULES
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- Waste from a medical complex gurgled into the water further
downstream in the city, creating an aroma like raw fish and filling the
water with black globules and flecks of scum.
-
- Further on, sewage presented the biggest problem -- surging
almost untreated into the water from pipe after gaping pipe.
-
- It was not always that way. Iraqi researchers date the
start of the decline to Saddam Hussein's war with Iran in the 1980s, when
government funds were diverted to the army.
-
- Sanctions imposed after the 1991 Gulf War further crippled
facilities, before looters stripped sewage works -- along with other government
facilities -- after Baghdad fell last year.
-
- U.S. officials say they are working as fast as they can
to restore services, but blame the lack of progress on security.
-
- Beyond the sewage pipes, run-off from a power station
belching black smoke from a chimney poured into the water.
-
- Heavy metals found in the water have raised concerns
they may enter food and perhaps cause cancers in humans.
-
- Not far away, fisherman in a wooden boat cast a net into
the water as if on a countryside lake, while laughing children tumbled
into the river from the bank to cool off.
-
- Engineers who have witnessed the steady decline of Iraq's
waste management facilities are under no illusions at the scale of the
task ahead -- and the need for donor support.
-
- "We need the help of the government, we need the
help of the world," said Tahrir al-Jawahiri, an engineering consultant
who used to design Iraqi sewage works.
-
- To members of the Sabea Mandean Nation, the river's contents
are of little concern.
-
- "These little pieces of rubbish don't hurt a big
river like the Tigris," said Salem Khazal, 37, waiting to be immersed.
-
- "You should drink some -- you'll like it,"
he said.
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