The sewage drainage filling procedures in the Muhaizem area of Babil Governorate have caused a severe environmental and health crisis due to the overflow of wastewater and rising levels within residential neighborhoods and the roads leading to schools.
Physical education teacher Haidar Maeen Abdul told the News Video Agency that the residents of the fourth Muhaizem area are suffering from groundwater issues and the nature of the area, as the residents were surprised by the filling of the drainage system, which had been in use since 1950, and its conversion into residential land without notifying the citizens or the local representative. He noted that citizens have created private drainage systems at their own expense and connected them to the drainage until governmental service arrives according to formal approvals obtained from the governorate about five years ago.
Abdul added that the machinery continues to fill the drainage and compact the land, indicating that wastewater overflowed in the area after the channel was abruptly closed, and he called on the government and members of the governorate council to expedite the implementation of the governmental sewer project to end the suffering.
For his part, Salah Khudair Al-Mamouri confirmed that the residents of the 7th Muhaizem area were surprised by the closure of the sewage systems that every household contributed to installing at a cost of 250,000 dinars, which were functioning well, as they were broken and filled under the order of the governor, leading to a rise in wastewater levels inside homes and a deterioration of the environmental and health situation.
Al-Mamouri told the News Video Agency that all affected roads lead to three primary and middle schools for boys and girls, demanding the central government and the governor to repair the damages and include the area in the large Al-Hilla sewage project similar to the surrounding areas.
In the same context, a resident of the area confirmed to the News Video Agency that the problem in the area is summarized by burying the main drainage without providing any alternative, which has caused the streets to flood with wastewater that transmits diseases, greatly affecting the residents.
He pointed out that the area has a sewage title and is the only one deprived of sewage networks compared to the surrounding areas, stressing that the solutions provided by the sewage staff are limited to temporarily pumping the water without implementing permanent solutions to the problem.