Iraq: Cleaning up after ISIS: How Iraq’s New Chemicals Team Is Trying to Undo Years of Conflict Pollution

Dec 5, 2018 | UN Environment
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ISIS (also known as the Islamic State or Da’esh) has more or less been defeated in Iraq, but throughout the areas it once occupied, the group’s toxic legacy lives on. The ground is still laced with noxious chemicals, and the country’s waterways are still sullied with everything from oil spills to mustard gas residue. In one of the more egregious environmental calamities, a makeshift ISIS refinery leaked an 11 km-long oil trail near Hawija. Battered already by a raft of serious pre-existing air and water quality issues, many Iraqis – farmers, respiratory disease sufferers, and all – feel their war hasn’t yet ended.