“He loved nature, his favorite place in the world was his garden. And he wanted children to be able to enjoy playing and breathing freely in the open air,” says Hussein Julood, remembering his son Ali.
Ali died at the age of 21 of leukemia, which his doctor said was probably caused by the high levels of pollution in the area.
His family home is next to a giant oil field in Rumaila, southern Iraq, run by the British oil company BP.
At Ali’s funeral, his father wept and sang: “The end of Ramadan came, but you were not there.” Ali died on April 21, the same day as the Muslim holiday.
Ali was first diagnosed with cancer at age 15 and had passionately campaigned to end the flaring of toxic gas surrounding his home from the BP-run site, which was illegally located near his neighborhood.
This practice involves burning toxic waste gases released during oil extraction.
Investigation
Ali documented his life for a BBC News Arabic Service investigation last year, which revealed that Iraqi communities living near oil fields, where gas is flared in the open, are at increased risk of leukemia.
“We were playing soccer, then we had to run for cover, because of the clouds of smoke that were suffocating us and the oil that was raining from the sky,” Ali told us.
He and his friends called their town of Rumaila “the graveyard”, because of the high levels of cancer among the local community, which they suspected was due to the burning.
Ali recorded video diaries for the BBC crew, helping to expose the massive scale of contamination at the heavily guarded site where we had been denied access to film.
He continued to send us videos documenting the oil contamination up to weeks before his death.
In one of his final videos, cheeks slightly swollen from the steroids used to treat his cancer, Ali expressed his continued frustration: “After the documentary [de la BBC]BP and the government said they would reduce pollution and gases in the cities of Iraq, but unfortunately nothing has changed.”
Ali had also planned to challenge BP Chief Executive Bernard Looney over continued oil contamination in his community at the company’s annual shareholder meeting on April 27.
Instead, her father spoke on her behalf. Addressing Looney via webcam and interpreter from southern Iraq, he said: “From my doorstep, you can see the black smoke from burning gas 24 hours a day, and you can smell the toxic chemicals from these flares.” .
“Sometimes it’s so bad that breathing becomes difficult, and oil rains from the sky (…) Cancer is as common here as the flu.”
Hussein told the BBC he felt his son’s life had been sacrificed for the oil giant’s record profits.
BP’s profits more than doubled to $27.7 billion in 2022 as energy prices soared after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
condolences
Looney offered his condolences to Hussein, saying the company, along with its partners in Rumaila, had reduced flaring at the oil field and was working to address reports of black smoke at the site.
Ahead of the annual meeting, some of Britain’s biggest pension funds voted against reappointing BP’s chairman over a decision to weaken its climate plans.
One of the pension funds, Nest, said there were also concerns about BP’s moves to reduce gas flaring, after seeing the BBC documentary featuring Ali.
Hussein described his son as a “hero” who had remained cheerful and optimistic throughout his years of treatment and who “did not fear sickness or death.”
He hopes his son’s death can help spark some kind of change and that “companies and countries will take a stand, not just for Ali, but for everyone.”
Ali shared with us his dream for Iraq before his death:
“I hope in the future that these oil companies will disappear and that emissions will stop so that children can live in peace.”
As Ali’s community mourns his death, the air they breathe is a constant reminder of what he was fighting for.
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BBC-NEWS-SRC: https://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias-internacional-65433674, IMPORTING DATE: 2023-05-04 04:00:08
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