Garbage clogs the banks of Iraqs Tigris River in Baghdad but an army of young volunteers is cleaning it, a rare environmental project in the war-battered country.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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 Baghdads Imams Bridge.<\/p>\n
We want to change this reality. I want to make my city more beautiful.<\/p>\n
The task is Herculean in a country where it remains common for people to drop their trash on the ground.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
There is a lot of plastic, nylon bags and corks, said Ali, also 19 and an organiser of the cleanup event.<\/p>\n
The group then handed their collected waste to the Baghdad City Council which took it away, bound for a landfill.<\/p>\n
More often the garbage ends up directly in the Tigris. It is one of Iraqs two major waterways, along with the Euphrates, that face a host of environmental pressures.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
The trash that flows downriver clogs riverbanks and wetlands and poses a threat to wildlife, both terrestrial and aquatic.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
The country also lacks proper infrastructure for waste collection and disposal, said Azzam Alwash, head of the non-governmental group Nature Iraq.<\/p>\n
There are no environmentally friendly landfills and plastic recycling is not economically viable, he said.<\/p>\n
Most garbage ends up in open dumps where it is burned, sending plumes of acrid smoke into the air.<\/p>\n
This happens in Iraqs southern Mesopotamian Marshes, one of the worlds 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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Even worse is the air pollution caused by flaring burning off the gas that escapes during oil extraction.<\/p>\n
This toxic cocktail has contributed to a rise in respiratory illnesses and greenhouse gas emissions, a phenomenon the UNs climate experts have voiced alarm about.<\/p>\n
Environment Minister Jassem al-Falahi admitted in comments to the official news agency INA that waste incinerations toxic gases affect peoples lives and health.<\/p>\n
But so far there have been few government initiatives to tackle Iraqs environmental woes, and so projects like the Tigris cleanup are leading the way for now.<\/p>\n
Ali, the volunteer, hopes that their effort will have a more long-term effect by helping to change attitudes.<\/p>\n
Some people have stopped throwing their waste on the street, he said, and some have even joined us.<\/p>\n
by Ammar Karim<\/p>\n
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Iraqis clean up river as first green projects take root - Macau Business<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Garbage clogs the banks of Iraqs Tigris River in Baghdad but an army of young volunteers is cleaning it, a rare environmental project in the war-battered country. 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. Continue reading