Iraqi activists demanded employment opportunities and adequate public services as Prime Minister Mustafa Al Kadhimi visited the oil-rich city of Basra on Thursday.
Residents of Iraq’s second city say they have been driven onto the streets in protest by corruption and misrule that allowed infrastructure to collapse, leaving no power or safe drinking water.
Mr Al Kadhimi visited the southern city to inaugurate a gas tower, which is the biggest of its kind in the industry, constructed by the Basra Gas Company.
In a letter directed to the government, the Human Rights Commission in Basra said the government must ensure that it “deals with the effects of pollution” and must give equal employment opportunities to Basra’s youth.
“The gains of this new project must be reflected on the people of Basra, especially it’s youth as they struggle with poverty, deprivation and from diseases,” the letter said.
Iraqis have called on authorities to clean up the water supply, with pollution blamed for putting tens of thousands of people in hospital in Basra province alone over the last two years.
Hospitals across the city were overwhelmed with patients poisoned by polluted drinking water.
Iraq is one of the most oil-rich countries in the world but has suffered chronic water and power shortages for decades.
The coronavirus pandemic and tumbling oil prices have taken a heavy toll this year, with poverty rates expected to soar to at least 40 per cent.
During his visit Mr Al Kadhimi said the economic crisis that the country is going through “has prompted us to think about the future and to build an economy that does not depend entirely on oil, in order to achieve a better life for all Iraqis."
“This is a step in the right direction, one that is moving away from the traditional dependence on crude oil, to Iraq and to Basra,” Mr Al Kadhimi said.
Unprecedented demonstrations erupted across Baghdad and Iraq's south in October 2019 as protesters called for jobs, basic services, a total overhaul of the ruling class and an end to corruption.
Basra witnessed this week a flare in protests that turned into violent clashes.
Police officers and troops fired into the air to disperse around 500 protesters who had been throwing rocks, which resulted in the injury of dozens of people.
