Interview with new environment minister

Iraq’s new Ministry of Environment (MoE) was created after last year's US-led war. Its brief is to deal with a myriad of environmental problems, many of which are the legacy of decades of conflict, including radiation at the country’s nuclear bomb-making site at Tuwaitha, about 30 km south of Baghdad. Minister Mishkat Moumin, currently in the United States learning about environmental advocacy, answered IRIN’s questions by e-mail. Before taking on her new role, Moumin specialised in human rights. QUESTION: What is your biggest goal? ANSWER: We need to protect our environment so that people who live here don't get sick. In the past, Saddam Hussein was never responsible for monitoring the environment, and no one paid attention to it. Now, we must be responsible. Q: What will you do about the environmental damage caused by sabotage to crude oil pipelines around the country? A: When the crude oil spills it damages not only the earth, but also the water. In many cases, oil has spilled out into the water, caught fire and created a huge environmental catastrophe. We have created an emergency committee to deal with the oil spill pollution in the south, in the north and in central Iraq. There is a new technique to remove the oil pollution, which we learned from outside advisers. There is a gel to take oil out of the water. For the land, we have been able to keep the oil contained with sand in most places. Q: Do you have plans to deal with pollution from Iraq’s ageing power plants? A: We must fix these power plants. There is too much waste coming from the smoke stacks. We are spending money from our budget to rehabilitate these power stations. It is evident to everyone that this is a big problem. We always see the haze created from this in Baghdad. Q: Are there any laws in place governing pollution coming from factories? A: We are now doing studies to look into the various cases of companies that put pollution into our rivers and into the air. We will work in coordination with other ministries to monitor the kind of materials that cause this pollution. We will use the laws we have to limit the bad effects of this on our environment. There are not many laws governing this, but we will enforce the rules that we have. Q: How does the MoE deal with water pollution? A: We cooperate with the Ministry of Water Resources to make sure the small quantities of water being used are not contaminated. There is a shortage of water in our country for most of the year, so it’s very easy for the water to get contaminated. We have to make sure that what is available is good, so we have to monitor the water treatment plants and cooperate with the water resources officials to make sure the quality of water remains good. This is especially important when we have the potential for high salt concentration in our water. It affects our agriculture. Q: How does the current poor security situation affect the ministry? A: We will continue to work no matter what the situation. In cooperation with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) we are removing polluted materials from five locations in Iraq, including the Al-Mishraq Sulphur State Company, where sulphur fires damaged the surrounding soil and groundwater; and the Midland (Daura) Refinery Stores where 5,000 mt of chemicals are believed to have been spilled. Q: Where will the money come from to do this work? A: Actually, we will do testing at these sites first to show the damage. Tests will be evaluated in Europe. We will present the findings along with UNDP and UNEP and then start to clean up the contaminated areas. The programme is expected to cost US $4.7 million. But there are as many as 300 other sites that should be tested for contamination. Q: Crude oil spills seem to be the most common form of recent contamination. What is the next most common form? A: Many chemicals were dumped onto the ground or are stored in dangerous containers under the former military industry ministry. Theses are the most dangerous. There is lead, spilled at Daura refinery [in southern Baghdad] and many scrap metal plants where there is asbestos and engine oil dumped on the ground. In addition, much of the scrap metal now being taken outside of Iraq for sale may be contaminated with depleted uranium, especially if it was hit by bombs during the war or in earlier conflicts. Q: Is radiation contamination still a problem? A: At Tuwaitha, where the government used to build nuclear bombs and do research, there is a lot of radiation. Most of it [the contamination] happened recently with the looting. People took containers and dumped what was in them on the ground. US forces paid to get the containers back, but no one cleaned up the soil. In fact, we don’t know what was dumped there yet. We need to study this more. We tested 4,000 people in Tuwaitha for contamination. But it is too early to tell how people were affected, if they will get cancer, or what else might happen to them. Q: What is your assessment of the contamination situation across Iraq? A: Many villages are contaminated by radiation. Much of the groundwater is polluted. The oil sabotage has created so many new problems all around the country. But give us the resources and we will solve these problems. We have good scientists to help us solve this.