Desk Study on the Environment in Iraq Desk Study on the ... - UNEP

• Military waste, including waste from chemical, biological and nuclear
weapons programmes
The multiple military conflicts during the past quarter of a century have resulted in large and
widespread quantities of military debris (including unexploded ordnance, spent cartridges/
shells/penetrators, military vehicles etc), toxic and radioactive material (depleted uranium),
contaminated soils and demolition waste (e.g. containing chemicals or asbestos), human and
animal remains (leading to elevated disease risks, especially in urban areas), and packaging
from military and humanitarian supplies.
Numerous destroyed ed and damaged military y vehicles were abandoned in Kuw
uwait after the 1991 Gulf
War
ar, , posing a major clean-up challenge
As described in Chapter 4.3, Iraq had extensive programmes for the production of weapons
of mass destruction. In addition to waste from research and production processes and destruction
of weapons by the Iraqi authorities and by UN weapons inspectors, many facilities
were targeted during the Gulf War. The potential remaining environmental risks of toxic
and/or radioactive waste materials from these weapons programmes are unknown.
3.4 Oil industry
Main problems:
• likely widespread oil contamination of surface water and groundwater due to poor environmental
controls;
•
oil industry maintenance standards fell due to a lack of spare parts under the UN sanctions
regime, increasing the likelihood of pollution incidents.
PETER TURNLEY - CORBIS
CHRONIC ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES
Routine oil operations may result in environmental degradation due to:
• acquisition of land and resulting land use changes;
on the Environment in Iraq
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