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Is Oil Industry Killing the Poor in Wasit?
7/11/15
This article was originally published by Niqash. Any opinions expressed are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of*Iraq Business News.
Chinese Company Pollutes, Causes Disease: Is The Oil Industry Killing The Poor in Wasit?
As soon as the Chinese oil company began extracting oil from the Ahdab oil field in Wasit [Wassit] province, local people began to get strange allergies and develop problems like asthma, skin diseases and conjunctivitis.
A local farmer tells NIQASH that although the villages closest to the oil field are the most impacted, problems get particularly bad even further afield when the wind comes from the north.
“Families living in this area have complained many times and they have called upon the government to take action,” says local resident Yahia Naqi. “But nothing has been done to protect them against this slow death. The damage to people’s health has been enormous.”
Naqi says that the most affected families tend to be lower income ones. “And now they cannot even sleep on their roofs during summer when the electricity [for air conditioning, in Iraq’s summer heat that reaches as high as 50 degrees Centigrade] is cut off because of all the gases emitted,” he complains.
Chinese oil companies have been working in this area for some time. They had signed a contract with former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and after 2003, when the Hussein regime was toppled by a US-led invasion, the contract was amended.
And the damage to people’s health is not the only problem, adds Majtabi al-Qutbi the head of the municipal council in the Ahrar subdistrict. “Oil companies have also destroyed a lot of local agricultural land,” he told NIQASH.
As a result locals have called upon the authorities to do something about these issues.
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7/11/15
This article was originally published by Niqash. Any opinions expressed are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of*Iraq Business News.
Chinese Company Pollutes, Causes Disease: Is The Oil Industry Killing The Poor in Wasit?
As soon as the Chinese oil company began extracting oil from the Ahdab oil field in Wasit [Wassit] province, local people began to get strange allergies and develop problems like asthma, skin diseases and conjunctivitis.
A local farmer tells NIQASH that although the villages closest to the oil field are the most impacted, problems get particularly bad even further afield when the wind comes from the north.
“Families living in this area have complained many times and they have called upon the government to take action,” says local resident Yahia Naqi. “But nothing has been done to protect them against this slow death. The damage to people’s health has been enormous.”
Naqi says that the most affected families tend to be lower income ones. “And now they cannot even sleep on their roofs during summer when the electricity [for air conditioning, in Iraq’s summer heat that reaches as high as 50 degrees Centigrade] is cut off because of all the gases emitted,” he complains.
Chinese oil companies have been working in this area for some time. They had signed a contract with former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and after 2003, when the Hussein regime was toppled by a US-led invasion, the contract was amended.
And the damage to people’s health is not the only problem, adds Majtabi al-Qutbi the head of the municipal council in the Ahrar subdistrict. “Oil companies have also destroyed a lot of local agricultural land,” he told NIQASH.
As a result locals have called upon the authorities to do something about these issues.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
