Fresh Fire Rages in Mesopotamian Marshes in Iraq

Date: 30 July 2018 - 21:44

News ID: ۵۵۷۳۲

TEHRAN (Dispatches) -- The wildfires that had been mostly contained in the Iraqi part of Mesopotamian Marshes have once again swept through the region and the smoke has affected the cities of Iran’s Khuzestan province.
Kiomars Hajizadeh, the director general of Khuzestan crisis management department, said Monday that a huge part of the fire in what is locally called the Hoor-al-Azim wetland occurred in Iraq.
"Unfortunately, the situation in Iraq has made the situation difficult to deal with. This country must make special efforts to resolve this issue,” he said.
So far many measures have been taken to prevent fires in the wetland, but since their source is not in Iran, operations have become very difficult to carry out, he added.
Hajizadeh said smoke from the burning marches has turned into a serious problem in Khuzestan province. The most immediate solution for the problem now is to release of water from the Karkheh river, he said.
"Khuzestan’s water and power departments need to do some investigations to determine whether the water, which is to be transferred to Iraq, can be provided from the Karkheh river,” Hajizadeh said.
The Khuzestan crisis management department, he said, is set to send aircraft to contain and extinguish the blaze.
He said a joint meeting will also be held between officials of Iran’s Khuzestan province and Iraq’s Maysan governorate.
The first fires in the wetland in late June lasted more than 20 days and burned over 18,000 hectares of the marshes on the Iraqi side.