Recently the top Shia cleric of Iraq Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, declared that dumping untreated sewage, solid waste, biomedical or chemical waste into rivers is forbidden under Islamic law. According to the decree issued by his office these acts were declared as sins as these acts cause harm to public health. The Grand Ayatollah had to intervene in response to a query from a group of people who said pollution in Iraq’s rivers especially Tigris and Euphrates had worsened in the last 5 to 6 years. The untreated waste coming from different cities like Bagdad, Mosul, Tikrit, Hillah, Najaf, Samawah, Fallujah etc contaminate the waters of Tigris and Euphrates and cause serious health and environmental hazards in these cities. Ayatollah Sistani’s office said dumping of solid or liquid waste was not permitted “because it leads to harm to people,” and anyone responsible for it “is sinful under Islamic law” and could also bear legal liability, and that breaking the relevant government regulations was likewise impermissible. It urged authorities to provide alternative means of waste disposal and proper waste management services to the people living around Tigris and Euphrates rivers especially.The decree came amid a worsening pollution in Najaf province, where the river Euphrates is polluted due to flushing of the untreated waste water into it. According to the news reports the wastewater projects in Najaf Sewerage Directorate were unable to treat all the waste water as they have the limited waste water treatment capacity due to massive urbanisation. The five sewerage treatment plants-STPs  in Najaf and Kufa are designed to handle about 85,000 cubic meters per day, but incoming waste water volume exceeds these limits and now they have sought........

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