MP Huda Sajjad to (INA): 17 Thousand Acts of Infringement on Basra Water Share Practiced by Influential Personalities or Parties

INA-Baghdad Member of ‘The Committee of Services and Reconstruction’ in the previous Iraqi parliament, MP Huda Sajjad, disclosed that there are more than 17 thousand documented acts of infringement on river waters which are released by the Ministry of Water Resources to Basra Province as a determined ration. ‘Much of these infringements,’ Sajjad told (INA), ‘are practiced by powerful state officials or influential parties for the purpose of irrigating their farms illegally or to refill their fish ponds. Such illegal practices resulted in sharp drop in consumable water for humans.’ The concerned authorities raised lawsuits against no more than 1400 violators, Sajjad remarks, leaving more than 15 thousand others untouched due to their high status. Such violations shouldn’t be blamed on the government alone but also on the previous parliament whose legislative and supervisory committees worked to satisfy party interests and never came up with any legislations to curb those infringements which became so widely common today.’