UN
Environment Helping Boost Iraq’s Capacity to Handle Environmental
Legacy of War, Conflict and Looting Geneva/Nairobi,
10/11/2005 - Clean up of a highly polluted industrial
site south of Baghdad is being launched by the United
Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) following a study
of environmental ‘hot spots’ in Iraq.
The Al Quadissiya metal plating facility has been found
to contain numerous hazardous wastes including several
tonnes of health hazardous cyanide compounds.
The six month clean up programme, which may start as soon
as December, will entail removing, storing and treating
the cyanide wastes to reduce the public health risks currently
considered to be ‘severe”.
The facility, which was bombed, looted and then demolished
in an uncontrolled manner during and after the 2003 conflict,
is one of five priority sites studied by Iraqi experts
under a UNEP managed project.
The five sites, details of which are contained in the
report Assessment of Environmental ‘Hotspots’ in Iraq,
were among a list of 50 sites presented to the Iraqi Ministry
of the Environment for consideration and selection.
Some of the $900,000 secured for cleaning up the Al Quadissiya
site may also be used to detoxify another of the priority
sites. This is the Al Suwaira pesticide warehouse complex
sited 50km south east of the Iraqi capital.
Pesticide pollution there is also considered a potential
public health risk although a lesser one when compared
with the metal plating plant.
The five preliminary sites investigated are likely to
be the tip of the iceberg in terms of environmental hot
spots.
The report points out that the country “has a significant
legacy of contaminated and derelict industrial and military
sites”.
It also warns that the destruction of the Iraqi military
arsenal is creating new contamination and hazardous wastes
problems at scrap yards and munitions dumps which could
be better managed through better working practices and
basic planning.
There are also recommendations covering the oil industry’s
contaminated sites and one for the establishment of a
hazardous waste treatment facility.
Overall close to $40 million is needed to meet the report’s
recommendations in full.
Klaus Toepfer, UNEP’s Executive Director, said: “Wars,
conflicts, instability and the poor environmental management
of the previous regime have the left their scars on the
Iraqi people and the Iraqi environment. If the country
is to have a brighter and less risky future it is incumbent
on the international community to help the authorities
there deal with these pollution hot spots. A good and
positive example of capacity building and technology support”.
“We now have findings from our first assessments and clear
recommendations and a follow up plan for dealing with
the hazards. I am grateful to the Japanese government
for their support,” he added.
“One of the more positive outcomes of this work is that
it has led to the training of Iraqis from various ministries
including the Ministry of Environment in the latest, state
of the art, sampling techniques. It will allow the government
to carry forward this work so that all potentially hazardous
sites can be assessed and dealt with over the coming years,”
said Mr. Toepfer.
Narmin Othman, the Iraqi Environment Minister, added:”
Iraq faces a number of environmental challenges, some
of them directly related to the conflict but many as a
result of the years of lack of investment in environmental
management. The newly established Ministry of the Environment
is currently addressing these challenges. UNEP has been
a partner since the ministry’s inception”.
“This project, the result of which are launched today,
is only a beginning. The challenge now is identify and
assess all such areas of contamination in Iraq and systematically
restore them. We hope to have the support of the international
community as we undertake this task,” she said.
The assessments of the five sites was conducted in April
2005 funded by a contribution from the Japanese government
to the United Nations Development Group’s Iraqi Trust
Fund earmarked for UNEP.
The Japanese contribution is part of a wider package of
activities aimed at strengthening the Iraqi government’s
ability to manage its environmental affairs by “environmental
assessment and capacity building”.
In previous post conflict work, for example in the Balkans
and Afghanistan, UNEP’s Post Conflict Assessment Branch
has carried out its own sampling and field studies.
However the security situation in Iraq has precluded direct
sampling by a UNEP team. Instead it was decided to train
Iraqis from various ministries to carry out the work with
the samples tested at laboratories in Europe.
In total, just over 30 experts from Iraq were trained
in assessment techniques at workshops in Jordan, Switzerland
and the United Kingdom.
They were also issued with site assessment equipment including
lap tops and helped with the interpretation of results
gathered from the five priority sites.
Al Qadissiya metal plating facility
The facility, built in the 1980’s, occupies at 50 hectare
site on a flat plain between the Tigris and Euphrates.
It once was a complex of metal plating and machining units
manufacturing products including small arms.
During the 2003 conflict the facility was damaged by ground
and air strikes and following the conflict was “comprehensively
and repetitively looted”.
The assessment team took over sixty soil, waste, chemical
and surface water samples at the site as well as taking
over 100 photographs.
The report concludes that the most pressing issue is the
dispersed piles of sodium cyanide pellets. The chemical
was used in the hardening process for small arms such
as rifles.
Several tonnes of the acutely toxic compound, which is
lethal at a dose of less than one gramme, are believed
to be at the site. There is concern that children entering
the site could be exposed via the skin or by accidental
ingestion.
Others concerns centre around heavy metal wastes including
lead, nickel, cadmium and antimony.
The clean up operation has various aims including collecting
the most hazardous materials in special drums for safe
storage off site.
Al Suwaira Pesticide Warehouses
This four-hectare complex, located 1.5km north of the
town of Al Suwaira, was used to store, mix and dispatch
a range of pesticides over its 30 year life.
These included mercury, zinc and calcium compounds as
well as organo-chlorine and organo-phosphorous substances
like Lindane, Heptachlor and DDT.
After March 2003, it was looted leading to containers
being smashed and pesticides being spread around the buildings.
The assessment team took 20 soil and waste and chemical
samples backed up by over 100 photographs and video footage.
The report concludes that the site, predominantly the
contaminated warehouses, represents a low human health
risk. This is because the site is currently secured keeping
trespassers out.
“Approximately 100 cubic metres of waste pesticides are
present in the warehouses” and these are “unsafe to use
or even enter and will remain in that condition unless
decontaminated,” says the report.
UNEP is proposing to decontaminate the site by vacuuming
out the pesticide wastes and spaying the inside of the
warehouses to neutralize remaining pesticide residues.
Old and damaged pesticide containers will need to be removed,
sealed and stored safely elsewhere.
The Khan Dhari Petrochemicals Warehouse Site
The facility, located 30km west of Baghdad, contained
several thousand tones of refinery chemicals until it
was looted and partially burnt down in March 2003.
The report says the site represents a risk to the health
of site workers as a result of damaged drums and chemicals.
UNEP is recommending that the damaged buildings be demolished
and that there is clean up of the damaged drums and chemical
spills before operations and re-started.
Al Mishraq Sulphur Mining Complex
Located 50km south of Mosul, the complex is one of the
world’s largest sulphur mines.
In June 2003 a catastrophic fire burnt up to 300,000 tonnes
of stockpiled sulphur.
The report estimates that the site currently presents
a low risk to human health. But calls for upgrading of
the site before any moves are made to re-open it so as
to improve the complex’s environmental performance and
to minimize problems such as acid drainage.
Ouireej Military Scrap Yard
Ouireej, a planned residential area situated 15km south
of Baghdad, became in 2003 a main dumping and processing
site for military scrap and destroyed Iraqi weapons.
It once held hundreds of potentially hazardous items including
tanks and missiles containing unexploded ordnance and
chemicals.
The site represents a risk to human health, especially
site workers, but also residents.
UNEP recommends that the military and civilian scrapping
operations should be separated from the residential development.
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