Global Policy Forum

A United Nations watchdog warned Thursday that war damage to sanitation and electricity systems, coupled with worsening pollution, had aggravated Iraq's environmental crisis and posed a threat to health. The report, issued here by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), called for urgent action to restore Iraq's water and sewerage system and clean up pollution "hot spots" and piles of rubbish and medical waste to reduce the risk of epidemics. It also suggested scientists carry out a risk assessment of sites struck by US depleted-uranium (DU) munitions and that the Iraqi public be given advice on how to avoid potential exposure to DU. "Many environmental problems in Iraq are so alarming that an immediate assessment and a cleanup plan are needed urgently," the chairman of the UNEP study group, Pekka Haavisto, said.

"The environment must be fully integrated into all reconstruction plans if the country is to achieve a strong and sustainable recovery." The report is a so-called "desk study" that provides an overview of the environmental situation in Iraq but is not based on on-site knowledge. It said that the 2003 Iraqi conflict had added to environmental stress from the 1991 Gulf War, the 1980s Iran-Iraq war and the mismanagement and abuses of the ousted regime of Saddam Hussein.

Accumulated damage to water and sanitation systems had led to higher levels of pollution and health risks, it said. Continuous electricity cuts had often stopped the pumps that remove sewage and circulate freshwater. Power failures had also affected pumps that remove saline water from irrigated lands in the flood plains in southern Iraq, which had led to fields being waterlogged and contaminated with salt. Smoke from oilwell fires and burning oil trenches had caused local air pollution and soil contamination.

"The intensive use of DU weapons has likely caused environmental contamination of as-yet unknown levels or consequences," UNEP said in a press release. "Conducting a DU study would require receiving precise coordinates of the targeted sites from the military." During the 1991 Gulf War, just over 290 metric tons of DU projectiles were fired by the US, compared to nine tons in Kosovo and three tons in Bosnia-Hercegovina, the desk study said. "From this war we don't have that kind of confirmed figure," Haavisto told reporters.

But the report noted: "It is likely that significant amounts of DU rounds have been fired, with additional DU released into the environment from the burning of armour plating." UNEP experts expect there to be a "high risk" of inhaling DU dust when entering within a radius of about 150 metres of sites targeted with DU, unless high quality dust masks are worn, the study added.

"People inhaling DU dust into their lungs could receive radiation doses that constitute a health risk," it said. UNEP Executive Director Klaus Toepfer said there was an unmistakable link between Iraq's environment and the welfare of its people. "Environmental protection is a humanitarian issue. Not only do environmental hazards threaten human health and wellbeing, but they can impede aid operations."

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