In this context, the Iraqi Minister of Environment, Jassem Al-Falahi, told the Iraqi News Agency, in which he stated: “We regret to say, as a result of decades of wars, instability and confronting terrorist challenges, that Iraq is considered the first in the field of pollution in mines, explosive devices and remnants of war.”
He added that Iraq will be free of mines, improvised explosive devices and unexploded ordnance by 2028, which reveals that addressing this complex problem still needs many years, especially since the terrorist organization ISIS, during its occupation of large areas of the country from 2014 to 2017, the oldest Bombing large areas and planting them with various explosives and mines, which caused delaying the time limit previously set for declaring Iraq free of mines for a whole decade, which was initially scheduled for the year 2018.
According to the Department of Mine Affairs of the Iraqi Ministry of Environment, the total pollution volume in Iraq is about 6000 square kilometers, about half of which have been cleared, and the majority of mines are planted on Iraq’s eastern border with Iran, as well as the areas occupied by ISIS.
In order to understand the danger of categorizing Iraq as the most contaminated country in the world with mines, the Iraqi writer and political researcher Ali Al-Baydar says, in an interview with Sky News Arabia: “Because of the bloody series of wars that Iraq experienced from the Iraq-Iran war, to the second Gulf War in 1991, and then what It was called the war of liberation of Iraq or the American invasion in 2003, and then the war of liberation from the terrorist organization ISIS in 2017, so it is natural that Iraq is the country that contains the most mines and explosive war materials, which are scattered even in residential and populated areas, or those that are People pass through it, especially the agricultural and desert side roads.”
Unfortunately, dealing with this dilemma is still below the required level, as Al-Baydar explains by saying: “Iraq is still adopting old and outdated methods to deal with this imminent danger, which threatens the lives of millions of Iraqis, and has already claimed the lives of thousands upon thousands of innocent people who lost their lives, or were injured permanent disabilities and deformities.
And the Iraqi researcher added: “There is no serious and programmed interest on the part of the relevant state institutions to deal with this thorny and explosive file, not only this, but there is even talk of cases of corruption and corruption that accompanied the operations and projects of removing and dismantling mines and remnants of war.”
As for ways to ensure an integrated treatment of this pollution, Al-Baydar responds: “It is assumed here that the expertise and international companies specialized in this field have a long history, and granting them licenses to implement serious and practical projects to produce positive results, and to reach zero rates in this field, but this has not been done so far. Due to the lack of sufficient attention to the file as a whole by government agencies, and what complicates the scene more is the weak awareness of Iraqi citizens in terms of not realizing the extent of the danger of these mines and remnants of war. Highly dangerous explosives, and the locations and locations of minefields and contaminated areas in detail so that people can avoid them.”
Al-Baydar calls for international assistance to save Iraq from its large contamination with explosives and mines, saying: “We need international adoption of this urgent issue and help in solving it, and on the contrary, if the file remains suspended by local remedies, it will unfortunately remain without solutions for years and perhaps decades, this problem has always constituted an obstacle in the face of The freedom of movement of citizens and their smooth movement in many Iraqi regions, and they need immediate and radical treatment.”
Mines, bombs and unexploded ordnance are considered one of the biggest challenges facing the Iraqi authorities to return the displaced to their original areas after liberating them from the terrorist organization ISIS, in many northern and western governorates of Iraq, especially in the governorates of Nineveh, Anbar and Kirkuk, in addition to the mines scattered in the southern governorates. Iraq, which dates back to the long war with Iran over 8 years from 1980 to 1988.
According to the United Nations, about 100 children were killed or injured during the first nine months of this year, as a result of the explosion of mines and explosive remnants of war in Iraq.
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