According to some excellent investigative journalism at The Times, US troops are leaving behind a mess in Iraq, a toxic mess.
According to the report, toxic waste is seeping into practically every aspect of the environment. From oil seeping in the ground and open barrels of sulphuric acid to toxic scrap metal and batteries discarded near farmlands, the health situation there is looking rather dire.
And that is only the tip of the iceberg. There are still tens of thousands of hazardous waste and used gas and oil waiting to be disposed. Pentagon regulations say these should be shipped back to the US and disposed of properly. However, the reality on the ground is different.
It is so bad that rats near the waste dumping areas have been found dead. People who handle the remains show blisters, burns and complain of bad coughs.
On the other hand, Iraqis also have to contend with a more immediate and serious thread, which is a rising level of contamination and salinity in their rivers. As reported in the New York Times, Shat El-Arab, which is a river formed by the convergence of Iraq’s two historic rivers, Tigris and the Euphrates, is now so salty that farmlands are becoming barren.
The river’s challenge, however, is not related to US troops or policies. The problem lies in proper, fair agreements on water resources management across borders. The problem between Iraq, Iran and Turkey is pretty much the same as that between Jordan, Israel and Palestine and among the countries of the Nile river basin.
Dams outside Iraq’s borders are siphoning large amounts of water that the Shat El-Arab river can no longer hold the sea at bay. Seawater has slowly been creeping inland over the years, contaminating freshwater resources that farmers depended on for irrigation.
Between all the threats that the young Iraqi government is facing, I wonder if the environmental problems are going to get the attention they deserve. It is easy to push these problems to the back when dealing daily with makeshift bombs and terrorism attacks. But with the environmental issues becoming so serious, it would be foolhardy to ignore them now.