Pollution in the Middle East is reaching dangerous levels, and military occupation is one of the main culprits. Mahmoud Bakr reports from Amman The second Arab Youth Conference on Environment, held recently in Jordan, saw heated debate on the protection of Arab coasts. The forum, organised by the Arab Union for Youth and Environment (AUYE) and the Jordanian Higher Council for Youth, expressed particular concern over the destruction of the environment in Iraq and Palestine. Shawqi Karim Hassan, president of the National Society for the Defence of Environment and Children (NSDEC), said that pollution levels have significantly increased along the Euphrates and Tigris rivers and in the coastal areas of southern Iraq as a direct result of the occupation. Over 10 new diseases have appeared in Iraq. One of these, dubbed "the Israeli germ", primarily infects people between the ages of 15-19 and can be fatal. In women aged 18-30 this disease can lead to abortion or infertility. Statistics, Hassan added, prove that 45 per cent of young people in southern Iraq suffer from various diseases as a result of exposure to radiation, the level of which has risen dramatically since the 1991 Gulf War. Birth defects have also become commonplace in this part of the country, and the incidence of AIDS is also on the increase, with the Iraqi Health Ministry now recording 66 cases. Water shortages are also a problem. The Diyala river, which runs from the border with Iran as far as Baghdad, is now no longer fit for human use due to the disposal of liquid and solid waste in its waters. This has not been helped by the Americans purposely cutting down more than a million trees across the country and taking control of various green areas in Iraq, such as Al-Zawra Park, Baghdad Island, and the Habbaniya area of the capital city. Hassan reported that barrels containing radioactive materials have been stolen from Al-Tuwaytha project. NSDEC, in cooperation with the Iraqi Environment Ministry, have so far managed to retrieve only six barrels out of the 1,000 that went missing. According to the Environment Ministry, over ten areas have suffered radioactive contamination in the governorates of Basra, Samawa, and Alexandria. The radioactivity, Hassan said, is closely connected with the wreckage of military vehicles in this area. He expressed concern that these wrecks may continue to pose a threat not only to Iraq but to other countries in the region as well, pointing to the fact that the occupation forces are selling the scrap metal of destroyed vehicles to Jordan, Turkey and Iran. The occupation forces are reluctant to address this problem even through short-term solutions. Rubble removed from previously shelled areas is simply being dumped in rivers, Hassan added. Laboratory tests indicate that this has led to a pollution increase of 65 per cent in the Tigris and 60 per cent in the Euphrates. Walam Kamel Al-Attar is chief editor of the Iraqi magazine Al-Bi'ah (The Environment). She said that the exhaust fumes emitted by over 600,000 cars in Baghdad are also adding to the pollution problem. The bombing of pipelines poses a grave threat to the environment, Al-Attar added, recalling a recent attack that caused a massive oil spill near the Tigris. The Iraqi laboratories currently being used to measure such pollution are primitive and are unable to track the full range of environmental problems, let alone deal with them effectively. Pollution in and around Israel is also on the increase. Mahmoud Youssef, head of the Palestinian delegation, noted that Israel is not only destroying homes in Palestinian areas, but also wrecking water and sewage networks. As a result of Israeli actions, both sea and groundwater pollution is rising. Calling for the Middle East to be made free from weapons of mass destruction, Youssef pointed out that rising rates of radioactivity have recently been reported in the area around Israel's Dimona reactor. The head of the conference's Syrian delegation accused Israel of being a major cause of the pollution of the Mediterranean Sea. And this remains the case, despite the fact that Israel had promised as part of the Barcelona process in the late 1990s to build new refuse treatment plants in Tel Aviv, a promise on which it has since reneged. In contrast to Israel's lack of action, Syria is currently engaged in adding to its own stock of refuse treatment plants, using a $30 million loan it received for this purpose. AUYE President Magdi Allam said that the union will send a report to the International Atomic Energy Agency about the environmental impact of the Dimona reactor. This will highlight the fact that the reactor has exceeded its life-span, and poses a clear danger to Jordan, Egypt and the Negev region. Residents of Gaza, Allam noted, are suffering from severe water shortages due to rising demand and the salination of groundwater resources in coastal areas. Only 13 per cent of the wells in Gaza can now be used to supply drinking water. Without water, he warned, life can only become even more hellish in this densely populated area that is already suffering under military siege and the systematic campaigns of destruction that go with occupation. Mamdouh Rashwan, secretary-general of the Egypt Youth Society for Development and Environment, added to previous comments by pointing out that refuse dumped by Haifa power station and Ashdod harbour straight into the sea are a major source of pollution in the Mediterranean, and a direct threat to Gaza's coastal areas. All delegates agreed that drastic action needs to be taken to halt and reverse such pollution processes before irreversible damage is inflicted.
