Oil slick shuts water plants in Iraq’s Nineveh

Shafaq News- Nineveh

All water plants in Iraq’s Nineveh province were ordered shut as a precaution after oil slicks appeared in the Tigris River, the provincial Water Directorate said.

The directorate said authorities were working to address the problem and operations would resume only after water safety was confirmed. It did not identify the source of the oil or give a reopening time.

Recurring Tigris Pollution

The shutdown follows a similar incident in Tikrit on November 8, when the Saladin Water Directorate suspended the city’s water project after detecting an oil slick near its intake. Directorate head Ahmed Ali Abdullah required technical and laboratory checks confirming the water was safe before operations could resume. A source familiar with the situation told Shafaq News that floodwaters may have carried leaked oil or waste from surrounding areas into the river.

In earlier incidents elsewhere along the Tigris, former Kirkuk environment director Ali Khorsheed told Shafaq News that aging pipelines, conflict damage, sabotage and illegal oil extraction had contributed to leaks.

Read more: Iraq’s environmental disaster: Oil springs flow into river