Shatt Al-Arab: Fishing up Iv fluid bags instead of fish
22 May 2025
In Shatt Al-Arab, fishing lines and nets no longer bring up fish but medical intravenous (IV) bags and human waste. The fish that once thrived can no longer grow. They have adapted by restricting their growth to survive.
“When did you last see Shatt Al-Arab’s water green? The fish need fresh water now,” said fisherman Jasem Abdul Latif, 78, as he described the changing waters of Shatt Al-Arab. Jasem blamed the disappearance of many species like zubaidi or silver pomfret and the stunted growth of others like shank on the contamination of the river. Jasem had been sitting for hours with his bait cast into the murky green waters of the river. In front of him are only hundreds of tiny zouri fish, none bigger than a finger. They swarm around a sealed can filled with bean stew, likely the leftovers of a mandi feast dumped along the riverbank. But the can is shut, and the zouri are hungry.
Where have the fish of Shatt Al-Arab gone?
Why are the fish shrinking?
When food becomes scarce and water quality deteriorates, oxygen becomes a luxury underwater; fish, in return, resort to shrinking to survive.
Ali Aziz, a marine science researcher at the University of Basrah’s College of Marine Sciences, explained that fish use this strategy to preserve their genes and ensure continuity. They reduce their size and increase egg production to adapt and reproduce.
According to Aziz, the process doesn’t stop there. With fewer resources, fish shrink and reproduce more to survive. Abu Mohammed has spent the past three days fishing for two to three hours at a time, each time facing Shatt Al-Arab with hope. But all he caught was one tiny, palm-sized fish. He recalled the size of fish in his youth. Once, he said, groups of katan (carp) were so massive they looked like “a flipped-over boat”, as he put it. Some weighed up to 50 kilograms. Today, he is lucky to catch anything between two and four kilograms.
The problems plaguing Shatt Al-Arab are many, ranging from saltwater intrusion to wastewater, medical waste, and garbage left behind by people along its banks.
A study by Iman Kareem Abbas, a lecturer in the Geography Department at the University of Basrah, documented numerous violations. Chief among them was hospitals dumping waste into Shatt Al-Arab or its tributaries.
In a 2016 study, Basrah Teaching Hospital discharged 150 to 400 cubic metres of liquid waste daily, equivalent to two large water tanks. Part of this waste went into the public sewage system, while the rest flowed into the Al-Baradhiya River, ultimately reaching Shatt Al-Arab.
Despite numerous reports and photographs of unidentified pipe leaks, the local government has taken no action.
When a video circulated showing a pipe discharging water into Shatt Al-Arab, many suspected a link to the Basrah Teaching Hospital or the Al-Baradhiya desalination plant. n unnamed “on-duty workshop official” appeared and claimed that the pipe was an old RO desalination pipe releasing clean water.
But that isn’t the only unidentified pipe discharging into Shatt Al-Arab. At least three visible pipes flow into the river. Two above the rocks and one below them.
Pipes discharging into Shatt Al-Arab. Source: The author.
The lower stretch of the river has turned salty
Saltwater intrusion can be defined as the rise in concentrations of salt compounds, such as magnesium, sodium, and calcium chlorides, in the lower stream of Shatt Al-Arab during dry seasons, when water levels drop. This makes the water unfit for life.
“One of the reasons that fish have been harmed and their numbers have dropped is the salinity of the water,” said Ali Haidar, 20, an amateur fisherman from Al-Salihiyah in Basra, who inherited the craft from his family.
Rising salinity levels introduce new challenges for fish. Their main struggle is maintaining water and salt balance within their bodies. This forces organs like the kidneys and gills to expend more energy to prevent dehydration.
These efforts put a strain on fish, hinder their growth and cause them to shrink or become stunted.
Shatt Al-Arab suffers from weak water supplies from the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, which has contributed to the increasing waterway salinity intrusion. In a previous statement, Hadi Abdul-Hussein Khudair, head of the Biology Department at the Basra Environment Directorate, stated that “the amount of water released from Maysan Governorate in the north toward Basra is insufficient, which weakens the flow and causes the salt wedge from the Gulf to rise into Shatt Al-Arab during high tide and pierce further.”
In 2022, Mahdi Rashid Al-Hamdani, the former Minister of Water Resources, blamed the Islamic Republic of Iran for constructing a dam on the Karun River. The dam’s redirection of the river and its tributaries lowered water levels and increased Shatt Al-Arab salinity intrusion. According to the World Health Organisation, the total dissolved solids (TDS) in water should not exceed 500 mg/l to be safe for human use and suitable for animal and plant life. TDS includes salts, minerals, metal ions, and other dissolved substances.
Last September, Jumaa Shiya, the Director of Water Resources in Basra Governorate, stated that the TDS level in Shatt Al-Arab, which reaches 2000, is “good” and not excessively high, despite being several times higher than the level recommended by WHO.
In August 2021, a salinity wave that began in late May caused mass fish deaths across 29 fish farms in the Al-Siba subdistrict of Basra. The salinity level rose from 4,000 TDS at the end of May to 18,000 TDS (total dissolved solids). Farmers reported financial losses reaching 50 million Iraqi dinars, around 33 thousand US dollars at the time, including losses in fish stock and feed.
Despite years of promises and even a preliminary approval announced in 2015 by Sabah Al-Bazouni, then head of Basra Provincial Council, regarding a dam on Shatt Al-Arab (an approval given by former Minister of Water Resources, Mohsen Al-Shammari), Basra still lacks any dam to curb Gulf saltwater intrusion and protect its vital fish resources. The pledge has been repeated by successive local administrations without any progress.
Abu Mohammed hoped the government would temporarily close all branches of the river in Basra to allow the water to clear and build a dam near Abu Al-Khasib, aiming to cleanse Shatt Al-Arab of salinity and pollution.
Basra residents are now demanding wastewater treatment, as their untreated sewage visibly contaminates Shatt Al-Arab, their source of fish, water, and cherished corniche.
On YouTube, citizens publish videos aiming to “expose” and to “appeal to” the local government. The same government allows faeces to mingle with tilapia. It promises to hold the “negligent” accountable for letting raw sewage flow into Shatt Al-Arab and the many rivers it feeds.
Meanwhile, Basra’s local TV channels continue to relentlessly film the pipes pumping sewage into the river. Yet, no one seems to be listening to the desperate outcry.
“All we have gotten from the commercial complexes is misery and suffering,” said a Basra resident, expressing his frustration over the growing number of commercial projects in the Shatt Al-Arab district. These developments now poison the very water that residents rely on. Naturally, it’s not just the people of Basra who end up drinking the waste; the fish share the same contaminated water.
Where lovers and pollutants meet
Before Shatt Al-Arab was formed, the Tigris and Euphrates rivers reached Basra, carrying with them all the waste they had collected across Iraq. In Kirkuk, North Oil Company leaks have created an oil valley, killing surrounding farmland and inevitably reaching Shatt Al-Arab.
Oil refineries and hospitals in Baghdad have been discharging their wastewater into the Tigris River, which emits a foul smell in some areas along its path.
In 2022, the Ministry of Water Resources accused the Baghdad Municipality and the province’s municipal departments of polluting the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Ali Radi, the ministry’s spokesperson, blamed sectoral agencies: “The responsibility for the pollution largely falls on the water-consuming sectoral entities.”
Ali mentioned that government institutions aren’t the only ones responsible for the pollution. “When people demolish a house, instead of having trucks haul away the rubble, they dump it along the riverbank.” Citizens fail to keep the area clean, and there is a lack of governmental oversight to protect the water from pollution or treat it.
Ali added, “Boat repairmen change the engine oil and dump it straight into the river. Every week or two, we return and find the water’s surface glowing like phosphorus.”
On Al-Salihiyah’s banks, Ali and his friends fish out discarded medical waste such as intravenous and blood bags, likely from a downstream hospital, reaching them instead of fish in their usual spot.
According to a study by a group of professors from India on the effects of chemical and physical factors in water on fish, one of the major problems in developing countries is the neglect of proper treatment of wastewater from human use. Pollutants absorbed by fish can disrupt their neurotransmitters and hormones crucial for appetite and growth, potentially stunting their development. A black patch in the middle of Shatt Al-Arab. Source: The author.
Riyadh Al-Aidani, an environmental affairs researcher, said that the types of fish that have disappeared due to pollution include “carp, silver carp, mullet, even shrimp, and many other species, including turtles.” He added, “We used to have marine fish entering our waters. They too migrated because of the pollution.”
Crisis cells, investigative committees, and promises from the local government to find solutions are abundant. But solutions have never been implemented.
In 2018, the local government of Basra formed a crisis cell to address the masses of fish dying off, which has affected thousands and caused an environmental, economic, and social disaster. Water bodies lost their biodiversity. Fish sellers and breeders lost their source of income. Iraqi society lost a staple food it relied on.
The fish die-off crisis recurred in 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024; in other words, fish have been dying almost every year for the past six years.
Ali Aziz considers fish to be environmental indicators. Their disappearance or decline with oxygen loss or pollution screams potential threat. Aziz noticed that native fish species, including those mentioned by Al-Eidani, have completely disappeared from the waters of Shatt Al-Arab. Only a few pollution-resistant species, such as tilapia, can survive under such harsh conditions.
However, Aziz warned that even these resilient species could vanish if pollution levels rise. He described the future of Shatt Al-Arab as “concerning”. Pollution keeps increasing while viable solutions remain scarce.
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“When did you last see Shatt Al-Arab’s water green? The fish need fresh water now,” said fisherman Jasem Abdul Latif, 78, as he described the changing waters of Shatt Al-Arab. Jasem blamed the disappearance of many species like zubaidi or silver pomfret and the stunted growth of others like shank on the contamination of the river. Jasem had been sitting for hours with his bait cast into the murky green waters of the river. In front of him are only hundreds of tiny zouri fish, none bigger than a finger. They swarm around a sealed can filled with bean stew, likely the leftovers of a mandi feast dumped along the riverbank. But the can is shut, and the zouri are hungry.
Where have the fish of Shatt Al-Arab gone?
Why are the fish shrinking?
When food becomes scarce and water quality deteriorates, oxygen becomes a luxury underwater; fish, in return, resort to shrinking to survive.
Ali Aziz, a marine science researcher at the University of Basrah’s College of Marine Sciences, explained that fish use this strategy to preserve their genes and ensure continuity. They reduce their size and increase egg production to adapt and reproduce.
According to Aziz, the process doesn’t stop there. With fewer resources, fish shrink and reproduce more to survive. Abu Mohammed has spent the past three days fishing for two to three hours at a time, each time facing Shatt Al-Arab with hope. But all he caught was one tiny, palm-sized fish. He recalled the size of fish in his youth. Once, he said, groups of katan (carp) were so massive they looked like “a flipped-over boat”, as he put it. Some weighed up to 50 kilograms. Today, he is lucky to catch anything between two and four kilograms.
The problems plaguing Shatt Al-Arab are many, ranging from saltwater intrusion to wastewater, medical waste, and garbage left behind by people along its banks.
A study by Iman Kareem Abbas, a lecturer in the Geography Department at the University of Basrah, documented numerous violations. Chief among them was hospitals dumping waste into Shatt Al-Arab or its tributaries.
In a 2016 study, Basrah Teaching Hospital discharged 150 to 400 cubic metres of liquid waste daily, equivalent to two large water tanks. Part of this waste went into the public sewage system, while the rest flowed into the Al-Baradhiya River, ultimately reaching Shatt Al-Arab.
Despite numerous reports and photographs of unidentified pipe leaks, the local government has taken no action.
When a video circulated showing a pipe discharging water into Shatt Al-Arab, many suspected a link to the Basrah Teaching Hospital or the Al-Baradhiya desalination plant. n unnamed “on-duty workshop official” appeared and claimed that the pipe was an old RO desalination pipe releasing clean water.
But that isn’t the only unidentified pipe discharging into Shatt Al-Arab. At least three visible pipes flow into the river. Two above the rocks and one below them.
Pipes discharging into Shatt Al-Arab. Source: The author.
The lower stretch of the river has turned salty
Saltwater intrusion can be defined as the rise in concentrations of salt compounds, such as magnesium, sodium, and calcium chlorides, in the lower stream of Shatt Al-Arab during dry seasons, when water levels drop. This makes the water unfit for life.
“One of the reasons that fish have been harmed and their numbers have dropped is the salinity of the water,” said Ali Haidar, 20, an amateur fisherman from Al-Salihiyah in Basra, who inherited the craft from his family.
Rising salinity levels introduce new challenges for fish. Their main struggle is maintaining water and salt balance within their bodies. This forces organs like the kidneys and gills to expend more energy to prevent dehydration.
These efforts put a strain on fish, hinder their growth and cause them to shrink or become stunted.
Shatt Al-Arab suffers from weak water supplies from the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, which has contributed to the increasing waterway salinity intrusion. In a previous statement, Hadi Abdul-Hussein Khudair, head of the Biology Department at the Basra Environment Directorate, stated that “the amount of water released from Maysan Governorate in the north toward Basra is insufficient, which weakens the flow and causes the salt wedge from the Gulf to rise into Shatt Al-Arab during high tide and pierce further.”
In 2022, Mahdi Rashid Al-Hamdani, the former Minister of Water Resources, blamed the Islamic Republic of Iran for constructing a dam on the Karun River. The dam’s redirection of the river and its tributaries lowered water levels and increased Shatt Al-Arab salinity intrusion. According to the World Health Organisation, the total dissolved solids (TDS) in water should not exceed 500 mg/l to be safe for human use and suitable for animal and plant life. TDS includes salts, minerals, metal ions, and other dissolved substances.
Last September, Jumaa Shiya, the Director of Water Resources in Basra Governorate, stated that the TDS level in Shatt Al-Arab, which reaches 2000, is “good” and not excessively high, despite being several times higher than the level recommended by WHO.
In August 2021, a salinity wave that began in late May caused mass fish deaths across 29 fish farms in the Al-Siba subdistrict of Basra. The salinity level rose from 4,000 TDS at the end of May to 18,000 TDS (total dissolved solids). Farmers reported financial losses reaching 50 million Iraqi dinars, around 33 thousand US dollars at the time, including losses in fish stock and feed.
Despite years of promises and even a preliminary approval announced in 2015 by Sabah Al-Bazouni, then head of Basra Provincial Council, regarding a dam on Shatt Al-Arab (an approval given by former Minister of Water Resources, Mohsen Al-Shammari), Basra still lacks any dam to curb Gulf saltwater intrusion and protect its vital fish resources. The pledge has been repeated by successive local administrations without any progress.
Abu Mohammed hoped the government would temporarily close all branches of the river in Basra to allow the water to clear and build a dam near Abu Al-Khasib, aiming to cleanse Shatt Al-Arab of salinity and pollution.
Basra residents are now demanding wastewater treatment, as their untreated sewage visibly contaminates Shatt Al-Arab, their source of fish, water, and cherished corniche.
On YouTube, citizens publish videos aiming to “expose” and to “appeal to” the local government. The same government allows faeces to mingle with tilapia. It promises to hold the “negligent” accountable for letting raw sewage flow into Shatt Al-Arab and the many rivers it feeds.
Meanwhile, Basra’s local TV channels continue to relentlessly film the pipes pumping sewage into the river. Yet, no one seems to be listening to the desperate outcry.
“All we have gotten from the commercial complexes is misery and suffering,” said a Basra resident, expressing his frustration over the growing number of commercial projects in the Shatt Al-Arab district. These developments now poison the very water that residents rely on. Naturally, it’s not just the people of Basra who end up drinking the waste; the fish share the same contaminated water.
Where lovers and pollutants meet
Before Shatt Al-Arab was formed, the Tigris and Euphrates rivers reached Basra, carrying with them all the waste they had collected across Iraq. In Kirkuk, North Oil Company leaks have created an oil valley, killing surrounding farmland and inevitably reaching Shatt Al-Arab.
Oil refineries and hospitals in Baghdad have been discharging their wastewater into the Tigris River, which emits a foul smell in some areas along its path.
In 2022, the Ministry of Water Resources accused the Baghdad Municipality and the province’s municipal departments of polluting the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Ali Radi, the ministry’s spokesperson, blamed sectoral agencies: “The responsibility for the pollution largely falls on the water-consuming sectoral entities.”
Ali mentioned that government institutions aren’t the only ones responsible for the pollution. “When people demolish a house, instead of having trucks haul away the rubble, they dump it along the riverbank.” Citizens fail to keep the area clean, and there is a lack of governmental oversight to protect the water from pollution or treat it.
Ali added, “Boat repairmen change the engine oil and dump it straight into the river. Every week or two, we return and find the water’s surface glowing like phosphorus.”
On Al-Salihiyah’s banks, Ali and his friends fish out discarded medical waste such as intravenous and blood bags, likely from a downstream hospital, reaching them instead of fish in their usual spot.
According to a study by a group of professors from India on the effects of chemical and physical factors in water on fish, one of the major problems in developing countries is the neglect of proper treatment of wastewater from human use. Pollutants absorbed by fish can disrupt their neurotransmitters and hormones crucial for appetite and growth, potentially stunting their development. A black patch in the middle of Shatt Al-Arab. Source: The author.
Riyadh Al-Aidani, an environmental affairs researcher, said that the types of fish that have disappeared due to pollution include “carp, silver carp, mullet, even shrimp, and many other species, including turtles.” He added, “We used to have marine fish entering our waters. They too migrated because of the pollution.”
Crisis cells, investigative committees, and promises from the local government to find solutions are abundant. But solutions have never been implemented.
In 2018, the local government of Basra formed a crisis cell to address the masses of fish dying off, which has affected thousands and caused an environmental, economic, and social disaster. Water bodies lost their biodiversity. Fish sellers and breeders lost their source of income. Iraqi society lost a staple food it relied on.
The fish die-off crisis recurred in 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024; in other words, fish have been dying almost every year for the past six years.
Ali Aziz considers fish to be environmental indicators. Their disappearance or decline with oxygen loss or pollution screams potential threat. Aziz noticed that native fish species, including those mentioned by Al-Eidani, have completely disappeared from the waters of Shatt Al-Arab. Only a few pollution-resistant species, such as tilapia, can survive under such harsh conditions.
However, Aziz warned that even these resilient species could vanish if pollution levels rise. He described the future of Shatt Al-Arab as “concerning”. Pollution keeps increasing while viable solutions remain scarce.
