Dubai Telegraph - Iraqis clean up river as first green projects take root

EUR -
AED 3.841211
AFN 75.832767
ALL 100.186787
AMD 414.576178
ANG 1.887817
AOA 956.388626
ARS 1105.306912
AUD 1.656685
AWG 1.885056
AZN 1.78038
BAM 1.969275
BBD 2.114972
BDT 127.270845
BGN 1.955518
BHD 0.394123
BIF 3061.059083
BMD 1.045801
BND 1.414197
BOB 7.238599
BRL 6.033118
BSD 1.047467
BTN 91.024834
BWP 14.518551
BYN 3.428089
BYR 20497.696624
BZD 2.104097
CAD 1.485084
CDF 2996.219457
CHF 0.944918
CLF 0.02597
CLP 996.585326
CNY 7.62368
CNH 7.61239
COP 4328.967115
CRC 531.134264
CUC 1.045801
CUP 27.713722
CVE 110.907656
CZK 25.04069
DJF 185.859769
DKK 7.459799
DOP 65.101235
DZD 141.548368
EGP 52.957052
ERN 15.687013
ETB 131.874426
FJD 2.411404
FKP 0.840462
GBP 0.832677
GEL 2.949014
GGP 0.840462
GHS 16.168365
GIP 0.840462
GMD 74.777355
GNF 9050.360522
GTQ 8.08633
GYD 219.151631
HKD 8.144587
HNL 26.704726
HRK 7.555991
HTG 137.069861
HUF 402.027044
IDR 16982.759973
ILS 3.727799
IMP 0.840462
INR 90.759879
IQD 1369.999111
IRR 44028.215839
ISK 146.799364
JEP 0.840462
JMD 164.777483
JOD 0.741999
JPY 160.097469
KES 134.908497
KGS 91.455371
KHR 4192.615543
KMF 492.206077
KPW 941.314949
KRW 1508.564274
KWD 0.322808
KYD 0.872986
KZT 523.280525
LAK 22720.023256
LBP 93729.900655
LKR 309.903465
LRD 206.545178
LSL 19.358075
LTL 3.087978
LVL 0.632594
LYD 5.134724
MAD 10.425622
MDL 19.640672
MGA 4925.722497
MKD 61.482134
MMK 3396.720361
MNT 3619.675593
MOP 8.403923
MRU 41.88392
MUR 48.650272
MVR 16.115643
MWK 1811.327328
MXN 21.361581
MYR 4.643182
MZN 66.837223
NAD 19.357987
NGN 1576.17837
NIO 38.543734
NOK 11.666743
NPR 145.641636
NZD 1.842253
OMR 0.402641
PAB 1.047477
PEN 3.88672
PGK 4.192621
PHP 60.517345
PKR 291.935403
PLN 4.170683
PYG 8239.377593
QAR 3.80771
RON 4.976447
RSD 117.081589
RUB 93.599748
RWF 1464.121187
SAR 3.922391
SBD 8.833842
SCR 15.049083
SDG 628.52583
SEK 11.232108
SGD 1.405645
SHP 0.861308
SLE 23.854476
SLL 21929.926782
SOS 597.677932
SRD 36.969175
STD 21645.966093
SVC 9.165716
SYP 13598.565212
SZL 19.357906
THB 35.233282
TJS 11.417735
TMT 3.670761
TND 3.331868
TOP 2.449369
TRY 37.853286
TTD 7.108641
TWD 34.12626
TZS 2730.060284
UAH 43.701425
UGX 3854.373387
USD 1.045801
UYU 45.450997
UZS 13595.411031
VES 64.573691
VND 26631.318598
VUV 129.327127
WST 2.967323
XAF 660.48582
XAG 0.032328
XAU 0.000357
XCD 2.826329
XDR 0.802096
XOF 660.046764
XPF 119.331742
YER 259.358393
ZAR 19.348781
ZMK 9413.459828
ZMW 29.30379
ZWL 336.747446
  • RBGPF

    -0.8400

    64.01

    -1.31%

  • BCC

    1.8800

    120.6

    +1.56%

  • RELX

    0.4700

    51.91

    +0.91%

  • RIO

    1.2500

    63.29

    +1.98%

  • CMSD

    0.1600

    23.87

    +0.67%

  • CMSC

    0.1300

    23.41

    +0.56%

  • NGG

    0.6900

    61.27

    +1.13%

  • RYCEF

    0.2100

    7.88

    +2.66%

  • GSK

    0.4200

    36.55

    +1.15%

  • SCS

    0.4900

    12.42

    +3.95%

  • JRI

    0.0700

    12.92

    +0.54%

  • VOD

    -0.1600

    8.43

    -1.9%

  • BCE

    0.3700

    23.63

    +1.57%

  • AZN

    0.0200

    74.45

    +0.03%

  • BP

    -0.1900

    34.49

    -0.55%

  • BTI

    -3.1300

    39.61

    -7.9%

Iraqis clean up river as first green projects take root
Iraqis clean up river as first green projects take root

Iraqis clean up river as first green projects take root

Garbage clogs the banks of Iraq's Tigris River in Baghdad but an army of young volunteers is cleaning it, a rare environmental project in the war-battered country.

Text size:

With boots and gloves, they pick up soggy trash, water bottles, aluminium cans and muddy styrofoam boxes, part of a green activist campaign called the Cleanup Ambassadors.

"This is the first time this area has been cleaned since 2003," shouts a passer-by about the years of conflict since a US-led invasion toppled dictator Saddam Hussein.

The war is over but Iraq faces another huge threat: a host of interrelated environmental problems from climate change and rampant pollution to dust storms and water scarcity.

The 200 volunteers at work in Baghdad want to be part of the solution, removing garbage from a stretch of one of the mighty rivers that gave birth to the ancient civilisations of Mesopotamia.

"It breaks my heart to see the banks of the Tigris in this state," said one 19-year-old volunteer, who gave only her first name, Rassel, working under Baghdad's Imams Bridge.

"We want to change this reality. I want to make my city more beautiful."

The task is Herculean in a country where it remains common for people to drop their trash on the ground.

The green banks of the Tigris, popular for picnics by families and groups of friends, are usually littered with waste, from single-use plastic bags to the disposable tips of hookah pipes, especially after public holidays.

- Rubbish chokes wildlife -

"There is a lot of plastic, nylon bags and corks," said Ali, also 19 and an organiser of the cleanup event.

The group then handed their collected waste to the Baghdad City Council which took it away, bound for a landfill.

More often the garbage ends up directly in the Tigris. It is one of Iraq's two major waterways, along with the Euphrates, that face a host of environmental pressures.

The rivers or their tributaries are dammed upstream in Turkey and Iran, over-used along the way, and polluted with domestic, industrial and agricultural waste.

The trash that flows downriver clogs riverbanks and wetlands and poses a threat to wildlife, both terrestrial and aquatic.

When the water empties into the Gulf, plastic bags are often ingested by turtles and dolphins and block the airways and stomachs of many other species, says a United Nations paper.

In Iraq -- which has suffered four decades of conflict and years of political and economic turmoil -- separating and recycling waste has yet to become a priority for most people.

The country also lacks proper infrastructure for waste collection and disposal, said Azzam Alwash, head of the non-governmental group Nature Iraq.

"There are no environmentally friendly landfills and plastic recycling is not economically viable," he said.

- Plumes of smoke -

Most garbage ends up in open dumps where it is burned, sending plumes of acrid smoke into the air.

This happens in Iraq's southern Mesopotamian Marshes, one of the world's largest inland deltas, which Saddam once had largely drained. They were named a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2016, both for their biodiversity and ancient history.

Today a round-the-clock fire outside the town of Souq al-Shuyukh, which is the gateway to the marshes, burns thousands of tonnes of garbage under the open sky, sending white smoke drifting many kilometres away.

"Open burning of waste is a source of air pollution, and the real cost is the shortening of Iraqi lives," said Alwash. "But the state has no money to build recycling facilities."

Even worse is the air pollution caused by flaring -- burning off the gas that escapes during oil extraction.

This toxic cocktail has contributed to a rise in respiratory illnesses and greenhouse gas emissions, a phenomenon the UN's climate experts have voiced alarm about.

Environment Minister Jassem al-Falahi admitted in comments to the official news agency INA that waste incineration's "toxic gases affect people's lives and health".

But so far there have been few government initiatives to tackle Iraq's environmental woes, and so projects like the Tigris cleanup are leading the way for now.

Ali, the volunteer, hopes that their effort will have a more long-term effect by helping to change attitudes.

"Some people have stopped throwing their waste on the street," he said, "and some have even joined us."

S.Saleem--DT