Kwashi factories and refineries in Dohuk pollute the air and the land

A.M. (42 years old), who lives in the Bastaki residential complex north of Dohuk in the Kurdistan Region, is forced to close the windows of her house and the air cooler every evening, when primitive oil refineries operating nearby release their pollutants and fumes into the sky, carrying unpleasant odors.

“It is unbearable,” the woman said angrily, pointing to the Kwashi industrial area. “We have been in this situation for years. it threatening  us, but no one can stop it.”

Environmental activist Idris Asahi (50 years old) warns of what he describes as “major environmental and health risks” created by private oil factories and refineries in the Kwashi region, many of which do not operate in accordance with environmental standards.

Asahi, an assistant physician in the Health Department of Sumil District (15 km northwest of Dohuk), says: “Here, hazardous waste and emissions are found everywhere. They pollute the land, water and air, and threaten nearby residents with a lot of diseases, and their effects go far through the air and water.”

Asahi repeatedly appeals the government and influential powers to save the residents of the areas surrounding Kwashi from its pollutants by stopping their sources or even reducing it. He and others also filed complaints with multiple parties, but their voices and movements remained to no avail, despite repeated promises.

Judicial authorities stopped the work of these facilities, but this only lasted for days, which indicates that the work of these facilities goes beyond the local authorities and concerned parties, especially that the area includes oil refineries whose owners seized the lands on which they were built illegally, and do not have government work permits. He added

The environmental activist warns that some people establish factories under certain names, then later transfer their use to other purposes, such as the oil industry.

Asahi said: “Year after year, cancer cases increase throughout the Kurdistan region. In 2019, the recorded numbers reached 1,300 cases, but during the period following the Covid-19 pandemic, they witnessed a decline as a result of the cessation of industrial activities that pollute the environment.”

There are no statistics available on the cases number of respiratory, chest, and cancerous diseases in the industrial zone in the Kwashi region, especially in the absence of a hospital specializing in cancer diseases in the region, but environmental activists and specialist doctors are certain of their dangerous impact on health.

“It’s like having an open gas bottle at home and you have to inhale its gas all day and night,” this is how Asahi describes what residents of the area faces.

The fear of dangerous diseases and the unpleasant smell that industrial facilities emit throughout the night has prompted dozens of residents of the area to flee from it. This is what a resident of the “Bastaki” complex who preferred to remain anonymous said: “If you take a tour, you will find that many of the houses are a display for sale. Two days ago, a family left, and before that my neighbor moved to the city of Zakho, and I have plans to sell my house and go live somewhere else.”

The area of ​​the Kwashi area is 2,200 dunums, and there are 175 industrial facilities that have received official approvals, including three flour mills, in addition to dozens of small refineries, some of which are not environmentally certified, according to the Semil District Municipality.

The waste from that area formed hills that could be spotted from afar, while columns of smoke covered the sky, leaving unpleasant odors spreading over several kilometers. Next to all of this are villages and residential complexes such as “Marina” and “Bastaki” located next to the city of Semil.

Environmental violations

Engineer Mohsen Abdel Karim, Director of the Semil Municipality Department, says that the Kouachi area includes factories for heavy products such as iron, as well as plastic, cork, and other products, “and because it is not permissible to have such facilities within cities, this area was allocated for them.”

It is noteworthy that these factories have obtained official approvals, and that their licenses are of two types, “industrial development and investment,” and that applications for licenses are submitted to a higher committee supervised by the Dohuk Governorate Administration, which sends them to the municipality department, where the latter allocates the appropriate space for each factory or industrial facility after obtaining approval. Urban planning, and upon completion of these procedures, all permits are approved by the governorate.

If the license is for investment, the property is transferred in the name of the Investment Authority and a contract is organized with the investor. However, if the license is through industrial development, the contracts are organized in the municipality and supervised by the Department of Industry.

Despite this, the director of the Semil Municipality Department confirms that there are refineries in the Kawachi area that operate without an official license, and that his department did not grant their owners licenses or arrange contracts for them.

He points out one of the ways of bypassing the law: “In the beginning, lands were allocated and licenses were granted for specific projects. Later, their owners transgressed and changed the type of work without our approval. Warnings were given to them and they were given time periods to work according to the licenses granted to them, each according to the type assigned to them. Otherwise, the license would be withdrawn.” Those who are not committed have already been referred to the competent courts.”

The author of the investigation obtained information indicating that the managements of a number of refineries obtained special exceptions, provided that they adhere to the regulations regarding the work of the refineries. In response, the director of the Semil Municipality says, “These refineries are unofficial and cannot be granted licenses. The refineries are affiliated with the Ministry of Natural Resources, and their departments must obtain their licenses from there, and so far we have not received any license regarding them from that ministry.”

Environment Department procedures

The Dohuk Environment Department had taken action against violating establishments between 2019 and 2022, according to Sherwan Akram, the official of the Legal Division, who revealed that his department had fined 34 refineries and factories in Kwashi, and that the fines were imposed according to the degree of pollution.

Akram says that specialized environmental committees are constantly monitoring sources of pollution, whether they belong to companies or individuals, and that fines were imposed directly by the department, but since 2022, fines have become the jurisdiction of the misdemeanor court, while the environment department is involved in cases as a complainant.

Between 2022 and 2023, the Department of Environment filed 32 lawsuits against factories and oil refineries in Kouachi. Human rights activist Shirwan says: “We filed the lawsuits as a complainant through the Public Prosecution in the Semele Misdemeanor Court, and financial penalties were imposed on many of them, and there are still lawsuits that have not yet been resolved.”

Regarding exceptions, he explained that 12 refineries were excluded from stopping work “due to their compliance with environmental instructions, even though their work is not completely consistent with these instructions.”

As for the Public Prosecutor in the Semele Court, Hakim Abdul Wahid Yunus, he said that they sent several letters to the official authorities regarding violations in the Kouachi area, including a letter to the Semele District Investigation Court, guaranteeing the opening of an investigation and taking legal measures against (20) refineries and oil refining plants. Their owners have encroached on state lands and illegally seized them, causing them to emit toxic gases that harm the environment and the health of citizens.”

Younis confirms that violators will expose themselves to penalties that may include imprisonment, a fine, or both penalties, and in accordance with the provisions of the Environmental Protection and Improvement Law No. (8) of 2008, fines reach 200 million Iraqi dinars.

It was not possible for the investigator to know the details of the cases, given that they are in the investigation phase, but legal sources stated that the cases may end with settlements through the owners of those refineries pledging to take the necessary measures to reduce the harm of gaseous emissions through the use of exhausts placed at the top of the torches, and the treatment of their liquid waste in various ways which is environmentally acceptable.

Waste sorting plant

According to the Semil District Municipality, official approvals were granted to make Kwashi an industrial zone in the year 2005, and ten years later many factories were opened there and began disposing of their liquid and solid waste without treatment and in the complete absence of proper methods that do not threaten the environment.

Government agencies also established a factory for waste sorting and fertilizer production on an area of ​​1,360,000 square metres. It was operated in May 2011, but the factory, which was supposed to treat solid waste and reduce some sources of pollution, in turn became a source of pollution in Kawachi!

Jian Suleiman, a lecturer at the University of Dohuk, addressed this project in her study, entitled (Recycling solid waste in the Kwashi industrial zone – a study in the geography of pollution), in which she stated that waste was brought to the factory from three main sources: “Dohuk, Semil, and displaced persons camps” at a daily average of 850 To 950 tons, in addition to one ton of waste resulting from activities in the Kwashi area itself.”

While the factory’s capacity ranges between 250-300 tons, the remaining quantities are buried in an incorrect manner from an environmental standpoint, as they are buried in a regular pit and covered with only 10 cm thick soil. Sometimes this waste is burned before the landfill process as a result of the interaction of the materials. Together, this leads to pollution of the surrounding environment, soil and water.

The process of sorting waste in the factory is also not very efficient, and 50% of the sorted waste is not used: “Which leads to its accumulation in a landfill near the factory. This waste is mostly wet, which leads to the emission of harmful gases such as carbon dioxide.” And methane, which increases the occurrence and frequency of fires in the landfill due to methane being a self-combustion gas.”

Also, large amounts of water are used to treat waste to become organic fertilizer: “The soil is polluted with high levels of nitrate ion NO-3, exceeding the needs of plants and leading to their death, in addition to the emission of foul-smelling gases, such as hydrogen sulfur gas (H2S), to which plants are exposed.” Factory workers daily, which puts them under a negative impact in the long term,” according to the study published by the Scientific Journal of the University of Dohuk.

Kwashi landfill area

Jian pointed out that the small space allocated for burying waste and its inability to accommodate all the waste thrown into it from the waste sorting plant, leads to the accumulation of waste in the open, to be burned or exposed to sunlight and heat and burned automatically, and in both cases it causes environmental pollution.

The author of the investigation obtained information that the Dohuk Environment Department imposed a fine on the waste sorting plant due to the presence of exposed waste in the landfill area, but the problem was not addressed despite this.

Engineer Hassan Al-Bamerni, a specialist in the chemical field and responsible for the Urban Environment Department in the Dohuk Environment Department, explains aspects of the problem of waste treatment in Kwashi. He says, there are two landfills. If the waste is household, it is sorted in the sorting plant and buried in the regular landfill, and other waste goes to the informal landfill and is buried directly there without sorting.

He added: “The leachate comes out of the waste, which in turn goes to the treatment plant, but the treatment unit in the waste sorting plant is incomplete and has many deficiencies that have effectively disrupted its work.”

He believes that the pollution in the Kawachi area is the result of waste produced by factories of all types, whether related to petroleum derivatives, food factories, iron smelting factories, etc.

He points out that some laboratories have primitive processing units, such as “the leather tanning plant, battery manufacturing plant, etc., which do not reach the desired level of processing, according to the environmental conditions.”

Engineer Hassan warns of the danger of gaseous emissions issued by industrial and oil activities: “They dissolve with the rain falling on the soil, affect the amount of acidity in it, and affect the groundwater.”

He says that an artesian well in the nearby “Marina” residential area was affected by Kwashi pollutants, “which was recently closed by the Water Department to prevent it from causing diseases to the residents.”

He points out the reason why factories and refineries are not held directly accountable for the pollutants they secrete: “The facilities there do not have sewers designated for each of them, and their number is large, so leaks occur randomly without accurately identifying the source, so we will not be able to identify the culprit in order to take action against him.”

The author of the investigation tried to communicate with the administrations of a number of factories and oil refineries in Kwashi but he did not receive a response from any of them. Legal restrictions also prevented him from accessing the details of the lawsuits filed against some of them because they are still in the investigation phase.

Distress calls

Abu Ahmed (46 years old), a construction worker, lives in the “Marina” complex. He believes that pollution coming from industrial facilities has exacerbated the illness of his eight-year-old son, who suffers from a heart problem.

He expresses this with great concern by saying: “He has a problem with his heart valve, and the smoke from oil refineries and other laboratories and the unpleasant odors emanating from their waste cause him shortness of breath and worsen his condition.”

He adds: “So far, I have spent 20,000 dollars to treat him in the region and outside it, some of it from my savings and the rest from loans I owe, but this will not be enough to cure him.”

Pointing to where the refineries are, he added: “The government must find a solution to the pollution on the ground, in our waters, and in the skies that cover us.”

Local media and social media platforms are constantly circulating distress calls from people in the areas surrounding Kwashi to government agencies to intervene in order to stop the pollution.

Ramadan Majeed, a doctor specializing in cancer, confirms that the Kwashi area suffers from “severe pollution” whether in the soil, water or air. “The level of acidity and salts there is high, which seeps into the soil with rainwater.”

The doctor, who is active in the field of raising awareness of the danger of environmental pollution and its effects on public health, and has research in this field, believes that polluted water that penetrates into the soil extends its negative impact to trees and other plants as well as animals.

 He adds: “It also threatens the groundwater on which residents depend greatly to obtain fresh water through artesian wells,” which he considers a source of concern due to their increased possibility of exposure to disease.

Doctor Ramadan points out that estimates by the World Health Organization indicate that 30% of cases of stroke, heart attack, and cancer are due to atmospheric pollution, that is, the air. He warns that “air pollution can cause diseases, especially when polluted particles are mixed with water or inhaled, which is what happens in Kwashi,” he says firmly.

The doctor revealed that he is currently busy completing laboratory analyzes of the air, soil and water in the Kwashi area, because he believes that Kwashi is one of the main sources causing the increase in the rate of cancer in the region.

Although there is no evidence or statistics linking the incidence of some dangerous diseases to pollution in areas where these industrial facilities are spread that are not subject to global environmental standards, researchers link the high rates of infection with these diseases to the increase in pollutants in recent years.

According to statistics from the Dohuk Health Presidency, the number of registered cases of cancer increased in the region from 486 cases recorded in 2013, to 1,180 cases recorded in 2023, with the highest level of infections recorded in 2022, which reached 1,434 cases.

Regarding the Semil district, which is close to the source of pollution in Kouachi, the Health Directorate’s statistics indicated that only 10 cases were recorded in 2013, which increased more than six-fold in ten years, as 68 cases were recorded in 2023.

At a time when health sources indicate that a portion of the infection cases are not recorded in the Kurdistan region, as their patients resort to treatment outside the country, especially in light of the lack of hospitals specialized in cancer diseases in most of the cities of the region.

Ecosystem disruption

The author of the investigation conducted a tour with the professor specializing in environmental affairs, Dr. Najm al-Din Nairoi, who confirmed that the region was exposed to an imbalance in the ecosystem.

He says that “only 1% of waste material residue in polluted water negatively affects the composition and function of microorganisms in soil and drinking water, which can lead to disturbances in the balance of the environment.”

Nairoi warns that the maximum permissible limit for solid salts dissolved in water should not exceed 500 mg/L, “however, the research I conducted in the Kwashi area showed that it exceeds this limit six times, and this constitutes a serious threat to the environment.”

He explains: “This increase in pollutants can reduce biodiversity and negatively affect living organisms, including fish. These effects are also reflected in the safety of other animals, such as livestock that depend on the region’s resources.”

He believes that government directions for treating polluted wastewater, which is the water resulting from industrial processes, are often not based on sound scientific foundations, despite the efforts it makes and the instructions it issues, “as most residential and industrial projects and factories do not adhere to them.

In turn, Dr. Mustafa Ismail Mustafa, a professor in the Department of Land and Water at the Faculty of Agricultural Engineering at the University of Dohuk, warns from the danger of water pollution resulting from heavy industries in the Kwashi region to human health in general and to animals in particular.

Mustafa, in a study published in 2022 in the International Journal of Health Sciences, entitled “The Impact of Industrial Surplus on the Environment of Sheep in the Kwashi Region,” concluded that the lack of water resources forces animals to drink water contaminated with waste and raw materials.

The study showed that factory emissions contain: “nitrogen oxides, sulfur oxides, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, and hydrogen sulfide,” and volatile organic compounds such as methane, which lead to the spread of respiratory diseases among sheep, leading to the death of large numbers of them every year.

According to Dr. Mustafa, about ten thousand sheep are infected with various diseases as a result of ingesting heavy sewage water that leaks across the plain of the Silifani area until it reaches the Mosul Dam and the Kwashi area located on its way. Research investigations also showed that 50% of the sheep suffered a miscarriage within a year. just one.

The researcher confirmed the presence of dangerous elements that exceeded the limits set by the World Health Organization, such as (cadmium and lead) in the blood of livestock and milk, as well as in the blood samples of people living in that region. Which makes the possibility of cancer in children very high.

The author of the investigation noted that the regulatory authorities have realized the impact of Kwashi pollution on livestock. Therefore, the Dohuk Environment Department imposes fines on the owners of livestock that graze in the area. This was confirmed by Shirwan Akram, official of the Legal Division in the department. He said that his department had imposed A livestock herder with 8 million Iraqi dinars (more than 6 thousand dollars) fine due he herding sheep near polluted areas in Kwashi.

The effects of pollution on the soil are now worrying the region’s farmers. Hajj Abdul Aziz (73 years old), a resident of the village of “Kulmini,” which is about 15 kilometers from Kwashi, says: “With everything I hear about the dangers, I no longer dare to grow anything.”

He added: “The village was previously a source of many vegetable and fruit crops, but with the emergence of industrial facilities, the lands turned into dry areas unsuitable for agriculture,” noting that polluted water began to mix through natural sewers with the village’s water, which was considered a major source of irrigation. Which led to crop damage.

Haj Abdul Aziz looks around and says, “Now we only grow wheat and wheat that depend on rainwater, but we have given up planting the rest of the crops.”

Solutions and procedures

The Dohuk Environment Directorate shows its seriousness in confronting pollution, as the director of the department, Engineer Dilshad Abdul Rahman, says that they hold accountable all those responsible for polluting the environment, whether they are individuals, institutions, or commercial entities. “We take the necessary legal measures and refer violators to justice.”

He confirms their move to confront any pollution in the water, “We respond to citizens’ complaints or to information that arrives through official bodies such as the municipality and the Water and Sewage Department, and after analyzing samples in the laboratory based on the two main tests (BOD-COD) and when the results exceed the levels specified by the World Health Organization.” The Directorate takes administrative and legal measures against violators.”

This also applies to solid waste, as well as gaseous emissions, as they are investigated, fines are imposed, and violators are referred to the judiciary in many cases.

Counseling lawyer Abdullah Muhammad Ibrahim points out that the provisions of Law No. (8) of 2008 regarding the protection and improvement of the environment in the Kurdistan region of Iraq address tort liability and compensation for damage. Article (21) gives those affected by environmental pollution the right to sue individuals or parties causing it. Damage resulting from negligence or personal actions.

He stresses the importance of those causing the pollution bearing their responsibility to compensate those affected, remove the damage, and restore the situation to what it was before the event, and that in the event of negligence or failure to take the necessary measures, the concerned authorities have the right to take the necessary measures to remove the damage, with the responsible person bearing the administrative costs and expenses, taking into account The degree of danger of polluting materials and the impact of pollution on the environment.

 these laws did not actually prevent the continuation of pollution, so activists and specialists believe that the problem is not in the laws, but in their application. Among them is an environmental activist who requested that his name not be mentioned. He said that the pollution caused by the oil factories and refineries in Kawachi “reaches a national extent of 22 km.”

He notes that thousands of cases of respiratory allergies were recorded by health authorities in Semil and nearby areas during the year 2023 alone due to gaseous emissions coming from the oil refineries in Kawachi.

He believes that the real solution is to immediately stop the work of all these refineries, without any exceptions, and force them to dismantle them or take measures to prevent harm from their gaseous and liquid emissions, “such as installing anti-pollution exhausts in torches, and effective treatment units for liquid waste.”

As well as forcing other factories in the region to deal with their waste and waste in a manner consistent with environmental determinants, monitoring the work of the waste sorting plant in the region, and forcing it to work in accordance with environmental conditions.

The environmental activist asks, “What is the point of being referred to the courts and returning to doing its work without committing to anything actual?” It is true that there are refineries that have been suspended until they take the necessary measures to prevent environmental damage, but there are others that continue to operate and pollute the environment day and night.”

Sdeek bedo (57 years old), a retired employee, who lives with his ten family members in the “Bastaki” complex, says that “400 families live in the complex, all of whom find themselves day after day surrounded by the smell of toxic pollutants, especially in the period after sunset and until the morning.” The next day”. He added sharply: “We cannot sleep even for a minute on the roofs of our homes in the summer months, as we have been accustomed to for decades.”

He points out that he and the rest of the residents are forced to constantly close doors and windows. “We cannot even operate air coolers because they draw in polluted air.”

A friend, who has no source of income other than his salary, and like others, he faces financial problems with the irregular distribution of salaries in Kurdistan. “My house is not worth anything so I can sell it and buy a house somewhere else, so it is difficult for us to leave and save our lives, as those who were able did.”

He takes a deep breath and adds bitterly: “I have no choice but to remain amidst the dangers of these pollutants, or to rent a house in another area, but then how will I manage the living of ten people when the entire salary will go to rent?”