Iraqis clean up river as first green projects take root

Iraqis clean up river as first green projects take root

BAGHDAD: Garbage clogs the banks of Iraq’s Tigris River in Baghdad but an army of young volunteers is cleaning it, a rare environmental project in the war-battered country. With boots and gloves, they pick up soggy trash, water bottles, aluminum cans and muddy styrofoam boxes, part of a green activist campaign called the Cleanup Ambassadors. “This is the first time this area has been cleaned since 2003,” shouts a passer-by about the years of conflict since a US-led invasion toppled dictator Saddam Hussein. The war is over but Iraq faces another huge threat: a host of interrelated environmental problems from climate change and rampant pollution to dust storms and water scarcity.

The 200 volunteers at work in Baghdad want to be part of the solution, removing garbage from a stretch of one of the mighty rivers that gave birth to the ancient civilizations of Mesopotamia. “It breaks my heart to see the banks of the Tigris in this state,” said one 19-year-old volunteer, who gave only her first name, Rassel, working under Baghdad’s Imams Bridge. “We want to change this reality. I want to make my city more beautiful.” The task is Herculean in a country where it remains common for people to