Russian Journal of Agricultural and Socio-Economic Sciences (Jul 2024)
ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTIONS RELATED TO CONFLICTS IN IRAQ AND PEOPLE’S HEALTH OUTCOMES
Abstract
The prolonging war actions in Iraq have given rise to cumulative increase in environmental pollutions across country. Areas which have been extensively polluted include air, land, water and the health infrastructure to a greater extend. War has been ongoing for over two decades and the environmental damage couldn’t be avoided. War in Iraq contaminated the sand through the military actions that reconfigured the desert sands raising dust and causing air and land pollution simultaneously. The dust storms generated by military actions would reach the cities such as Erbil and Baghdad contaminating environmental surfaces and infrastructure. Evidence from experiments conducted by measuring the amount uranium levels in animal organs show that there is the presence of depleted uranium the Iraqi food chains and webs. Results further shows that the highest depleted uranium concentration is found in the Southern part of Iraq. Places like the Al-Twaitha nuclear research site are considered to be extensively polluted because of the destruction of nuclear reactors in the Gulf war of 1991. Furthermore, more barrels which had radioactive materials were stolen from the site in 2001. Soil samples around the site exhibited a high amount of CS-137 and Co-60 which are damaging to human beings and biodiversity. Health complications which have been observed include birth defects and cancer due to the radioactive chemicals emitted during war. As noted above, environmental damage in form of infrastructural damage remains an outcome of Iraq’s long war, and rapid industrialization in oil extraction and urbanization. The most affected cities in Iraq are Erbil, Basrah, Faluja, Baghdad, Mosul, and Thi-qar. This analysis concludes that the presence of an extensively contaminated environment due to the past and current wars, rapid industrialization is directly connected to the health complications being sustained.
