Nahr Bin Umar, Iraq. Children from Noufel Abdallah Khaldi’s family play on the roof of the house, overlooking the five oil wells of Nahr Omar field. Most children living in Nahr Bin Omar suffer from respiratory problems or other pollution related health issues.
Iraq, The Price of Oil (2023)
Pollution, water depletion, and cancer: Oil companies and the ecocide in Iraq
Iraq is among the countries in the world most exposed to the effects of the climate crisis. While the effects of rising temperatures and erratic rainfall is certainly relevant and relatively talked about, the role of the oil industry is too often concealed.
In Basra, which exports two-third of the Iraqi oil (following the war in Ukraine, increasingly towards Europe), international oil companies failed to invest into existing technology that might limit the impact of their activities. They pump water from the rivers to extract the oil and, despite the World Bank recommendation, routinely flare the natural gas associated with extraction - a practice extremely harmful to human health and the environment. As a result, cancer in the region is on the raise and rivers are running dry. An ecological disaster is looming over the country, where local communities are left to pay the price of an irreversible environmental degradation. An investigation by Sara Manisera and Daniela Sala, supported by Journalismfund Europe
Zubayr, Iraq. Mohammed Youssef Abd (24 years old) is holding a photo of himself and his friend Nasser who died of leukemia a few years after the photo was taken. When Abd was 8, he was also diagnosed with leukemia. He was treated with several rounds of chemo between 2008 and 2012 and for three years he was hospitalized at Basra children hospital, where he met Nasser.
Al Khor, Iraq. The carcass of a water buffalo lies on the ground in the dry marshes North of Basra. Basra Northern marshes used to provide a living for the local community of buffalo herders and fishermen. Over the past ten years, increasing water scarcity has put the livelihood of local communities at stake.
Al Khor, Iraq. Layla Mutir, the youngest daughter of former fisherman Mahdi Mutir, in the family house. The family of seven fled from Central Iraq when Saddam Hussein drained the Mesopotamiam marshes in 1991. They moved to Northern Basra, where they now live in a three-storey shack. Now, with the local marshes going completely dry, they lost their livelihood and risk displacement again.
Zubayr, Iraq. Clothes are hung to dry on a truck waiting to be loaded with oil byproducts. Truck drivers transport oil byproducts from the Zubayr oilfield to factories in the South and in the East of the country, where they are used mostly to make asphalt. Drivers are typically paid around 20,000 Iraqi dinars (13 euros) per each ton transported (one truck can transport up to 30 tons).
Zubayr, Iraq. Jazmiya Khaled (48 years old) cries as she shares memories of her husband, Hassan Sajet, who died of liver cancer in July 2022, barely six months after the diagnosis. Sakjet worked as a vegetable seller. After learning that the family lives in close vicinity to the Zubayr oilfield, one of the biggest in Southern Iraq, the doctor said the cause of the cancer was the pollution from the gas flaring.
Nahr Bin Umar, Iraq. Early in the morning, a group of fishermen from Qarmat Ali collect the nets on the Shatt al-Arab river. They fish in the area daily and sell the fish for 5,000 Iraqi dinar per kilo (around 3 euros). They complain that due to the pollution and the increased salinity in the river there are less and less fishes, and they often find dead ones.
Basra, Iraq. At the National center for occupational health and safety in Basra, a refinery worker is getting his lung capacity tested with a spirometry test by physiatrist Saadi Hadi. Hadi explains that oil and gas workers often present obstructions and respiratory problems as most of them are not provided with masks and PPEs.
Basra, Iraq. Shia Abbas (60 years, from Nassiriya) just woke up, early in the morning, after spending the night on the floor next to her nephew, Ali Saad Hashem (11 years old). Ali has been treated for leukemia at Basra children's hospital for six months.
Zubayr, Iraq. Adnan Betran, from Basra, travels daily to Shaibah (around 30 minutes by car) to train his homing pigeons. It is a hobby he finds relaxing and profitable, as sometimes he manages to sell some of them. All around, Zubair’s oil field wells flare gas day and night.