Air Pollution, Hunger Stress Embattled Iraq

AMMAN, Jordan, March 31, 2003 (ENS) - Toxic smoke plumes from the Rumailah oil fields near Basra in southern Iraq fired by Iraqis to deter coalition forces have weakened over the past two days but continue to threaten inhabited areas with smog, according to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), which is monitoring the environmental consequences of the current conflict. Three of the seven oil wells set on fire are still burning.

More smoke from oil filled trenches and bomb fires farther north in Baghdad is spreading over the region. Smoke from oil fires contains contaminants such as sulfur, mercury, dioxins and furans.

U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. Joe Cross works near an uncontrolled natural gas fire in the Rumailah oil fields in southern Iraq. Explosives ordnance disposal airmen are disarming unexploded ordnance and land mines to help firefighters tackle the blazes. (Photo by Spc. James Johnson courtesy U.S. Army)

"Although the oil fires in southern Iraq are much smaller than what we saw in 1991, they too remain a potential concern for human health and the environment," said Toepfer.

Thick smoke over Iraq's eastern region reached into Iran over the past few days along the Dehloran border strip in the western Iranian province of Ilam. The Islamic Republic News Agency said the smoke was caused by explosions from bombs dropped by coalition aircraft.

A team from Doctors Without Borders arrived in the town of Dehloran on Thursday to inspect the city's border strip with Iraq. Team members plan to enter Iraq after coordination with political and security officials of Ilam, the nonprofit medical agency said.

Just outside Doha, Qatar, at the United States Central Command, Commander General Tommy Franks said Sunday that the coalition "has secured the oil fields in the south from regime destruction, which they attempted, and this vital resource has been preserved for Iraq's future."

Brigadier General Vincent Brooks, deputy director of operations at the U.S. Central Command, said Saturday that oil well repair activities are ongoing. "There are still three wells that are burning in the southern oil fields, and we are confident that that will be reduced here within the next few days."

"The Basra oil refinery, one of three in the country, is now secured by the coalition," said General Brooks. "We will enter that facility - it appears to have been shut down - and get it started again as soon as possible."

Fires in and around Baghdad as viewed from a NASA satellite today are marked with red dots. The dark plumes of smoke suggest they are oil fires. To the south, dust again is blowing over southern Iraq, Iran, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and the Gulf. (Photo courtesy NASA Earth Observatory)

General Franks said today that the "entire coastline of Iraq has been secured and her ports stand today as a gateway for humanitarian assistance for the Iraqi people." The first humanitarian shipments have arrived in convoys. "We have in fact placed water and millions of meals and medicines in stock to go to the Iraqi people," he said, "and delivery has already begun."

The aid delivery to Iraqis could evolve into the "largest in the history of humanitarian aid," a United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) spokesman said today. Briefing reporters in Amman, Khaled Mansour said the first WFP delivery since the outbreak of hostilities moved into Iraq on Sunday. Three trucks delivered 77 tons of dried skim milk to Dahuk in northern Iraq to help with a nutrition program it runs in the Kurdish provinces.

"Now that WFP has already started moving food across the borders with Turkey into northern Iraq, we are preparing to move the badly needed wheat flour, hopefully later this week, into northern Iraq," Mansour said.

The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) is trying to find ways of moving humanitarian assistance into northern and southern Iraq said spokesman Geoffrey Keele. But two trucks loaded with medical and educational supplies and material for emergency water provision are still at Habur Gate in Turkey waiting for permission to cross into Northern Iraq, he said.

In Kuwait, UNICEF is looking for ways to move large quantities of water under private contract into southern Iraq, where Keele said the need for clean water is urgent, especially for children. On Sunday, 13 vehicles were commissioned to go into the country but only three managed to deliver water to the sole Iraqi port of Um Qasr on the Gulf.

Veronique Taveau, spokesperson for the UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Iraq, said four delegates of the International Committee of the Red Cross had reached Basra from Kuwait across the front line with the full cooperation of all parties and delivered spare parts to the main water treatment station, which is functioning at only half of its capacity.

15 countries are on the UN Security Council which is shown here debating the resumption of Iraq's Oil for Food Program. (Photo courtesy UN)

The program was suspended on March 17 when UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan ordered the withdrawal of all UN personnel from Iraq. Since then the 15 member Security Council has been discussing his proposals on the adjustments to the program.

The new Security Council resolution gives the secretary-general more authority to administer the operation for the next 45 days. The resolution asks Annan to undertake "as an urgent first step," the establishment of alternative locations, inside as well as outside Iraq, for the delivery, inspection and confirmation of humanitarian supplies and equipment provided under the Oil for Food Program. He is authorized to review existing contracts for food and medicine and other essential supplies, negotiate and execute new contracts, and pay for the supplies with funds deposited in UN escrow accounts from the sale of Iraqi oil.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan speaks with reporters after the Security Council vote. (Photo courtesy UN)

The new Security Council resolution gives WFP access to food contracts in the UN Oil for Food pipeline. As part of the program, WFP has monitored food distributions, whether by the government of Iraq through the public distribution system in the Southern and Central Provinces or by the World Food Programme in the three Northern Governorates.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) today issued a Flash Appeal for the humanitarian requirements of the Iraq crisis. The UN's preliminary estimates are that US$2.218 billion will be required to assist the Iraqi people over the next six months until the end of September.

It is expected that these requirements will be met through a combination of donor funds and Oil for Food contracts.

The United States announced an additional contribution of $21 million to four international humanitarian organizations for relief operations related to the Iraq crisis, according to a Department of State note released on Saturday.

The organizations are the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, the International Organization for Migration, and the International Committee of the Red Cross.

To date, the U.S. has contributed $123 million to international organizations to prepare and respond to the crisis in Iraq.

"Two international wars - the Iran-Iraq war of 1980-88 and the Gulf War of 1991 - and some 12 years of UN imposed sanctions have had a serious negative impact on the civilian population in Iraq. The humanitarian situation in Iraq is significantly worse now than at the start of the 1991 conflict," OCHA says.

A security guard of the Jordanian Ministry of Supplies watches the Amman warehouse where World Food Programme food aid is stored. (Photo © WFP/Maarten Roest)

The ongoing conflict is likely to increase the risk of traumas and injuries, disease outbreaks, malnutrition, and mental distress. Common preventable diseases and chronic, treatable conditions, could become life threatening, due to restricted access to clean water, sanitation, shelter, and health services.

The lack of safe drinking water is an acute problem and is compounded by insufficient waste disposal, OCHA says. "Some 500,000 metric tons of raw sewage is being discharged into fresh water supplies daily," the agency said today.

Only 76 percent of the population in the center and the south has access to potable water - 92 percent in urban areas and 44 percent in rural areas, says OCHA.

UNEP observers report that aside from the smoke, environmental stress is shown by the increase in plankton productivity in the Shatt Al Arab estuary and surrounding waters. The plankton bloom may be due to the larger quantities of nutrients draining into the Gulf as raw sewage from Basra through canals and waterways associated with the Shatt Al Arab, UNEP said.

Wastewater and garbage from the unusually large number of ships in the area may also contribute to the phytoplankton blooms. In the past, increased plankton productivity in shallow waters such as the Kuwait Bay has led to large fish die offs, said UNEP.

Potential destruction of petrochemical plants and factories and storage facilities of industries that employ hazardous chemicals and generate toxic wastes, such as the foam, fertilizer, paper and pharmaceutical industries, is an environmental risk that UNEP is monitoring.

Currently, UNEP is conducting a background study to gather data and information on the Iraq environment to facilitate any future field investigations aimed at identifying pollution "hotspots."

Reduction of environmental risks and rehabilitation of damaged sites should be integrated into humanitarian assistance programs involving water, sanitation, refugees and displaced persons, and shelter, UNEP said today.

"Rapid action to repair environmental damage can often support humanitarian relief efforts in vital ways," said Toepfer. "For the longer term well being of Iraq's people, it is essential that environmental concerns be incorporated into any future rehabilitation programs."

Funding for environment related activities has been included in the United Nations' US$2.2 billion Flash Appeal for emergency assistance to Iraq and neighboring countries over the coming six months.