Percentage of polluted water in Thi-Qar decreased

THI-QAR / IraqiNews.com: The percentage of the polluted drinking water in Thi-Qar has decreased by 2/3 during the past seven months, the director of the Thi-Qar environment department said on Friday. “The pollution percentage has decreased from 67% last April to reach 20%,” Engineer Raji Naaima Munshed told IraqiNews.com. “The decrease of the polluted water is due to the tight measures and the daily tests made on water,” he noted. Thi-Qar, 380 km south of Baghdad , has an area of 12,900 square kilometers (4,980.7 sq mi). In 2003 the estimated population of the governorate was 1,454,200 people. Thi-Qar was the second Iraqi province where security responsibilities were transferred from the Multi-National Force (MNF) to the Iraqis. The province’s capital is the city of al-Nassiriya. It also includes the ancient Sumerian ruins of Ur , Eridu, Lagash and Ngirsu. Before 1976 the province was known as al-Muntafiq. SH (P) 1