This is causing political problems too. “The deviation of the Shatt al-Arab water flow has seen some islands formed in Iran’s direction,” Basra provincial council member, Amin Wahab, said. “Those islands are under Iran’s governance. This is something that touches on issues of Iraqi sovereignty and as a council, we believe swift action is needed. A new island has been formed in Ras al-Bayshah and that’s already led to a change in shipping routes.”
“What’s happening in the Shatt al-Arab waterway is now decreasing Iraq’s land,” Wahab continued. “There has also been a change in the Taluk line, which divides the two countries, especially at the Faw entrance.”
The Taluk line is an imaginary line that splits the Shatt al-Arab waterway and both Iraq and Iran agreed to it, according to the Algiers Agreement in 1975. Iraq says it has no idea what lies on the ocean floor on the Iranian side and whether any of that is dangerous or causing further erosion; the Iranians have not offered any information nor have they offered to help in any clean up either.
There are five ports around Basra and although they don’t have deep water access, these are Iraq’s only access to the world’s oceans. Many locals say the sunken tankers and the changing shape of the Shatt al-Arab waterway are only part of the problem. Local sailors complain that precautions on the waterways, such as lighted buoys, are non-existent here, that any kind of unlicensed ship can enter the port because there is no effective oversight authority.
They also say that the graduates from Basra’s prestigious maritime academy all work elsewhere and insurance companies regularly charge more for any vessels headed into Basra.
Meanwhile the Iraqi government regularly boasts that it is exporting more oil from its ports - many say their figures must be exaggerated because the ports simply don’t have this capacity.
“Nobody is doing anything about this,” complains Mukhles Abdul-Rida al-Khazaei, a captain in the local coastguard, bitterly. “Iraq’s maritime heritage is at an end.”
No one care , no one want , no one gives a S...? where does it
end.