Why Iraq needs immediate action on climate change
Iraq is facing serious environmental challenges that require money, know-how and an attitude of urgency.
BAGHDAD — Iraq faces many threats to its environment, not the least of which are apathy, a lack of education and a need for cooperation from other countries.
“Iraq is in dire need of environmental awareness. Environmental education is absent among the Iraqi people, whose dangerous behaviors are majorly affecting the environment," Nader Abdallah, a professor of environmental studies at the University of Babylon, told Al-Monitor.
Iraqi environmentalist Ibrahim Ramzi also noted how the bad behavior of citizens and businesses adds to the problem of pollution. He referred Al-Monitor to an article he wrote in January in which he noted "the disastrous levels of pollution in Iraq’s rivers, resulting from the deadly sewage flowing into the water and waste piling up on their banks.”
Al-Monitor took a tour around the banks of Shatt al-Hilla in Babil province, only to find that the river had been turned into a landfill for household and industrial waste.
