Investigative Reports: Due to cancerous diseases, a civil movement is about to explode to close the “Samawa Cement” factory
Residents of the neighborhoods surrounding the "Samawa Cement" factory, which has failed to implement environmental standards, have been complaining for several years about the spread of many diseases as a result of dust and gas emissions, which poses a permanent threat to their lives, especially after the expansion of its business following investment by the private sector.
With heavy steps, Amal (59 years old) moved toward the outer door of her house. She stopped at a plastic chair and leaned on it before turning to the side and repeating with bated breaths as she pointed to a nearby cement factory whose fumes were rising, forming a large cloud, “Because of it, I have cancer.
The woman in black, who lives in a house in the “Al-Mutashr” village, only 300 meters away from the “Samawa Cement” factory in the southern Muthanna Governorate, mentioned the names of six people from her neighbors in the same village. She said that they are all infected with the same disease, as a result of the pollutants emitted from The factory was established seven decades ago, and they have been hoping for years to close it or move it.
Amal discovered that she had cancer in 2020, and it was in the fourth stage, so she underwent multiple chemotherapy sessions with surgical intervention to remove a tumor in the colon, which improved her health condition relatively, according to what she mentioned.
She says: “Doctors do not rule out that the cause of my illness is the dust and smoke of the cement factory. I am 100% sure that it is the cause. Its toxins are sending death everywhere here.”
The Samawah Cement Factory is located in the center of the governorate, surrounded by several residential neighborhoods and villages, such as Al-Shuhada, 7 Nissan, the company’s houses, Al-Mishwaj, and Al-Mutashr village, and the closest residential house to it is only 100 meters away, and was established in 1955.
Its cement production covered the needs of the entire region, and the surplus was exported to the Gulf countries.
In 1977, a Danish production line was opened, and production expanded, along with the quantities of dust and smoke, while residential neighborhoods were approaching it with the natural population expansion occurring.
The factory remained under state custody until 2016, to be included in the privatization system and to become under the management of an investment group (Al-Samawa Cement Production Company) with a long contract extending for 25 years, without regard to the health and environmental damage it causes, according to activists and concerned government departments.
Several parties, including the Muthanna Environment Directorate, confirmed that the factory pollutes the environment and threatens public health, but they cannot take any action to definitively end the problem, so their efforts are limited to trying to limit its dangerous effects only.
Several parties, including the Muthanna Environment Directorate, confirmed that the factory pollutes the environment and threatens public health, but they cannot take any action to definitively end the problem, so their efforts are limited to trying to limit its dangerous effects only.
The CEO of SAMAWA CEMENT COMPANY, Dr. Ali Aziz Al-dhalmi, says that the factory stopped working for three years, shortly after his company signed its investment contract due to problems that occurred with the Ministry of Industry, so that work will return in 2021, with two production lines with a capacity of 1,500 tons of cement per day. Ordinary cement and 3,500 tons per day of resistant cement.
150 people work in the factory as government employees, while the investing company brought in 350 other employees in various specializations to develop production, indicating that work takes place 24 hours a day, in three shifts, each shift lasting eight working hours, and without a holiday.
Regarding the existence of a decision to close the factory by the former Muthanna Governorate Council, Al-dhalmi stated that the Council’s decision, which was issued a decade ago, was canceled in 2016 by a decision of the Committee of Experts affiliated with the Prime Minister and under the supervision of the Acting Minister of Industry.
He seemed confident that any new decision to close would not be issued in the future, because the investment contract that the company investing in the factory signed with the Ministry of Industry entails major legal responsibilities and consequences for the Ministry in the event that work stops.
The CEO denied that there were malfunctions in the precipitators, as some sources reported, which cause environmental pollution. “Sometimes a technical malfunction occurs in their operation for a short period, and they are immediately turned off until the malfunction is corrected.
He confirms that the factory management does not currently operate the “furnace” because its emissions are large, and only the mills are operated, because “their pollutants are few,” indicating the continued development of all parts of the factory, as a sedimentation system has been purchased and will be installed soon.
Regarding the presence of the factory in the middle of population centers, Dr. Ali says that when the factory was established, it was one square kilometer away from residential areas, and what happened was that residential areas encroached towards it, which were housing built in violation of the “bypass” law.
The factory management’s assurances of full compliance with environmental requirements and treatment of emissions intersect with the opinions of environmental authorities and statements by environmental activists that pollution continues, and that the factory uses poor types of fuel that cause pollution and pose a threat to human health.
The story of the factory’s emissions and the environmental damage it causes, as well as the attempts to close it, extends back to half a decade ago. In 2008, the Department of Environment in Muthanna Governorate issued a decision requiring the factory to be moved out of the city, due to the environmental damage it causes and its impact on the health of citizens.
The Muthanna Governorate Council at the time formed a committee to study the impact of the factory on the health and environmental reality in Samawah, and its members voted in 2014 on a decision to move it outside the administrative borders of the city of Samawah, but that was never implemented.
Director of the Environment Department in Al-Muthanna Governorate, Yousef Sawadi, says, “The Samawa Cement Factory is one of the factories that affects the environment in general and is classified as a Class A pollutant.”
According to the environmental classification, pollutants are divided into (A high, B medium, C low) and classification (A) is released according to levels of danger and impact, and includes dangerous chemical pollutants, and unnatural but chemically active dusts that interact with the human body and cause dangerous diseases.
This confirms that the Samawa Cement Factory violates environmental laws. Article 33 of the Environmental Protection and Improvement Law No. 27 of 2009 includes “prohibiting the construction of facilities without obtaining the approval of the authorities concerned with the environment.” These authorities believe that the factory represents a dangerous source of pollution and must be stopped.
Under the same legal article, warnings are issued and fines are imposed on establishments that violate environmental standards, and they are closed or forced to operate at night, and their status is subject to the supervision of the Environment Department.
Youssef Sawadi also points out that the factory violates Instructions No. 3 of 2011, which imposes a specific distance between facility sites, residential areas, and irrigation projects. According to the law, “the factory must be 10 kilometers away from the local borders and 5 kilometers away from any residential blocks.”
Sawadi notes that Muthanna Governorate includes seven cement factories, two of which are owned by the state, and the other five are private. He believes that the two government factories are below the required level according to environmental standards, indicating that they contribute to polluting the environment.
He explains: “They work with old technologies, old filters, and dilapidated combustion systems, and do not use precipitators. They also use fossil fuels that are harmful to the environment, unlike investment factories that use gas and electricity technologies.”
also he said that his department had prepared an environmental study seven years ago about the Samawa Cement Factory, and a decision was taken to close it based on the results of the study, which proved that it caused environmental harm to the region.
However, the decision to close was not taken, for fear that the 650 employees working there would lose their jobs. His department also later received assurances from a committee called (the National Committee) or (the Advisory Board Committee) that the factory would operate in accordance with the requirements of the Department of Environment and under its supervision.
To verify compliance with the requirements, the Director of the Muthanna Environment did not hide that his department had carried out many in-depth environmental studies on the impact of factory waste on the population and the diseases it could cause to them, but he said, “We cannot talk about the details in the media.”
The department does not have accurate statistics on the size of pollutants emitted due to the short of special devices for this.
The director of Al-Muthanna Environment adds: “Through our constant discussion with the Ministry of Industry, we are proposing to move the factory, but the Ministry believes that moving it is not economically feasible, and requires millions of dollars.”
He confirms that all they can do now, if they find that emissions are high, is to issue warnings and impose fines, which range from 100 to 150 thousand dinars ($76 to 115 dollars), and if the violation is repeated, a lawsuit will be filed.
The Director of the Planning Department in Muthanna Governorate, Qabel Al-Samawi, agrees with what the Environment Director said, and says: “We, in turn, asked the Ministry of Industry to move the factory from its current location, as it must be at least five kilometers away from residential communities.”
In the event that it is not possible to move the factory, Al-Samawi stressed the necessity of subjecting it to environmental standards, by using filters that operate according to modern technology to purify pollutants and the air.”
He holds the Ministry of Industry responsible for implementing environmental standards. “Failing to implement them means non-compliance with them and without clear justification, at a time when the extent of pollution in the factory is large,” indicating that the Ministry of Industry “needs to correct this path in order to preserve the environment and public health, as the priority must be for humans.” And for the city, not for the factory and machines.”
Abu Ammar (76 years old), a resident of the communities near the cement factory, says that he and a group of his neighbors formed a delegation representing 3,000 residents of the area, and filed a complaint with the Muthanna Environment Directorate regarding the pollution caused by the factory and its harm to them, demanding that “firm action be taken.” .
The residents of the area called for help from the media, so the factory administration decided to operate it at night due to the difficulty of monitoring and photographing the dust and smoke emitted during the night hours, while the residents are trying to organize a protest in front of the entrance to the factory, to alert the official authorities and put pressure to find a real solution to the danger threatening them.
Those affected accuse the factory management of not implementing procedures for treating harmful emissions, and of using poor quality fuel that threat human’s health, pointing to what they describe as collusion with official authorities that ignore the risks.
According to informed sources we contacted, the fuel used by the Samawa factory is black oil, which can generate environmentally harmful emissions, including carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrogen oxides (NOx), and sulfur oxides (SOx), in addition to particles suspended in the air, and these Emissions contribute to air pollution and thus increase the population’s risk of developing dangerous diseases such as cancer.
The official health authorities refuse to comment on linking the Samawah factory to the registration of cancer cases in the city. However, many doctors have stated that the plant could be responsible for medical conditions, including cancer, pointing out that it is difficult to prove this scientifically as there are a number of other factors that cause these diseases.
A doctor, who preferred to remain anonymous, says that there are indicators that highlight the presence of a problem in the air of the area surrounding and near the factory, which creates specific health problems.
Doctor Muhammad Shaker, director of Al-Hussein Teaching Hospital and a pulmonologist, confirms that 70% of the hospital’s visitors have respiratory problems, and that many who suffer from bronchial allergies or asthma live near the Samawa Cement Factory.
He says: “When conducting field surveys of families living near the factory, we find that at least one person in each of them suffers from bronchial or nasal allergies.”
He warns of the danger of factory emissions to the respiratory system, indicating that many cases of asthma and bronchial allergies may develop into incurable diseases such as cancer and pulmonary fibrosis.”
The director of Al-Hussein Teaching Hospital denies the existence of accurate and detailed statistics at the Samawah Health Directorate or at his hospital, about patients in the governorate or about the type of diseases due to the failure to operate the digital statistics and documentation system, and some employees put up fake numbers just to get the work done.
The hospital director accuses the government of not developing plans to improve the environment, and of not including experts in the health field in the specialized committees that provide consultations regarding the impact of environmental pollution on public health.
Umm Mustafa, who lives near the Samawa Cement Factory, mentions that her son (21 years old) also suffers from allergies in the bronchial tubes since his childhood, while layers of dust accumulate on the furniture in her house after cleaning it daily, all the way to the clothes in the closet.
She says that the damage is no longer limited to people’s health, but has reached a threat to agriculture, which is a basic source of income for the residents of the region, noting that the family orchard, which included ninety palm trees years ago, in addition to the legumes they grow, only 25 palm trees remain in it due to smoke. “Even those produced from it, we feel that its fruit is contaminated, as if it were poisoned.”
The statements and comments of government officials during the interviews we conducted with them show that the official authorities are fully aware of the effects of the Samawa Cement Factory, but they did not show any seriousness in moving to address the problem.
Employees in the governorate environment complain that they are not informed of all the parts in the factory during field inspection visits, and this is confirmed by the engineer in the Environment Department, Omran Karim, saying: “They prevent me from visiting all facilities to carry out our supervisory duty, and they even make me feel, through their behavior, that I am not wanted.
He also said, “I receive videos from residents showing emissions during the factory’s work at night. Perhaps the investor believes that the work of the observer is limited to the daytime only.”
Engineer Karim downplays the impact of the information he possesses on attempts to close the factory, especially after it was referred to an investor and provided with a huge power station and functional staff.
The engineer warns that the precipitators in the Samawa Cement Factory are old, and emit fine dust particles that fly into the air, causing respiratory problems and other diseases, especially since the investor “does not operate the kilns due to the high cost of raw materials, and resorts to clinker imported from Iran due to its low cost in order to achieve economic feasibility.” “For them, as they say.”
Cement clinker is a solid material produced in the cement industry as an intermediate product. Clinker is produced in the form of blocks or nodules, usually 3 mm (0.12 inches) to 25 mm (0.98 inches) in diameter.
Engineer Omran adds that it is recognized that polluting cement factories contribute to “the release of many greenhouse gases, which leads to increased global warming and climate change. These gases work to increase the concentration of heat in the atmosphere, leading to extreme weather changes.”
The investigative team contacted one of the engineers working at the Samawa Cement factory, who spoke on the condition that his name not be mentioned, and he did not deny that harmful emissions occurred in some periods, justifying this by saying: “Sometimes the precipitators and filters do not work, and sometimes malfunctions occur, and when the sedimentation stops, the dust is emitted and comes out to the top”.
He also confirms that specialized personnel go quickly to repair any malfunction that occurs, whether mechanical or electrical. He adds: “But the existing precipitators are old, and the method of work has not changed much in twenty years.”
The other reason that “the factory, has been working day and night without stopping, and the oven is not always running, which means there are pollutants.”
The engineer at the Samawah factory says, “They were forced to use clinker after the Ministry of Oil raised the prices of the black oil we relied on, and clinker is cheaper.”
The former Vice Chairman of the Muthanna Governorate Council, and head of the Environmental Conservation Caucus, Ali Hanoush, also said that during his term as a member of the Council, he communicated with those concerned with the Ministry of Industry regarding the environmental damage caused by the factory, but their position was negative regarding “the laws that protect the environment and prevent pollution.” .
He added: “The Ministry has always obstructed the implementation of the axes of the reports issued by the Council and the Ministry of Environment under the pretext of its inability to transfer workers, and I do not rule out that money will be paid for the factory to continue, despite its environmental inefficiency and its lack of insulation that prevents polluting materials, similar to other cement factories.” “According to him.
Lawyer Haider Al-Awadi confirmed that the failure of the people of the areas near the Samawah cement plant to resort to justice is due to ignorance of the law, especially in light of the lack of legal services for those who affected by the environment and climate in Iraq. “The vast majority of those affected by the cement plant’s emissions are from vulnerable groups of people.” Society, simple people living in slums.”
He says that those affected by the factory believe that the legal procedures are useless and lengthy, and the court may not consider them at all. “There is no precedent for a similar complaint in the governorate, and there is hesitation and fear, with convictions that a political party is behind the management of the factory.”
It is clarified that cases of pollution in general are legal violations, considered by civil courts, and procedures and penalties can be implemented on violators in accordance with Articles 32, 33, 34, 35 of the Environmental Protection and Improvement Law No. (27) of 2009. Compensation is also made in accordance with Civil Law No. 40 of 1951 “The judge’s discretion remains to determine the type of damage and the amounts of compensation.”
Alia (23 years old) is newly married, and her house is very close to the cement factory, she said” Even before her marriage, she lived with her family in a nearby area and has been suffering from bronchial allergy since she was eight years old. She points out to the factory : “As soon as I see dust rising, I take allergy medicine, because it relieves the coughing attack.”
As a result of her constant intake of allergy medications, she became obese, and all her attempts to lose weight were unsuccessful. She points to the factory and then adds in a sad tone: “I am pregnant with my first child, and I do not know how I will protect him from the toxins of this factory.”
She is certain that behind the management of the factory are those with authority and influence who will prevent any attempt to move or close it. She says with a sarcastic smile: “I am confident that the government is ready to move us, the people of the region, rather than move the cement factory, just because we are poor.”
This investigation was completed under the supervision of the “NERIJ” network within the environmental journalism project managed by the Internews organization.
