ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Basra’s provincial leadership has begun formally mobilizing political support for an autonomy push, with council members starting to collect signatures to advance the initiative, an official said.
“I have adopted the matter of collecting signatures from about a majority of the Council in the province, because they represent the Basra people who support this direction,” Osama al-Saad told Rudaw on Wednesday.
Basra, which accounts for an estimated 80 percent of Iraq’s oil exports, has long complained of poor public services despite its economic importance, fueling repeated calls for greater autonomy.
The first major autonomy push dates back to 2008, led by former lawmaker Wael Abdul Latif, and regained momentum in 2018 after a water contamination crisis sent more than 100,000 residents to hospitals.
Past efforts to achieve autonomy, such as those in the Kurdistan Region in the north, have yielded no results.
“We must demand the [establishment of the] region, because 90 percent of Iraq's budget comes from Basra province, and in return the province receives nothing but pollution, in addition to water scarcity or the rise of the salt tongue [intrusion of saltwater from the Arabian Gulf into the Shatt al-Arab], and has not enjoyed any of the wealth that goes to all of Iraq,” he said.
“Basra received from the 2023 budget 48 percent of its allocations, and from the 2024 budget, we received only 38 percent, and from the 2025 budget, zero,” he said, adding that “There are three decisions [to establish Basra as a region] from the previous Provincial Council regarding the establishment of Basra Region, but they were not activated,” he said.
He said previous appeals to the parliament speaker, prime minister, and presidency failed to advance the request.