Conflict Pollution Hotspots in Iraq
Publisher: World Bank
Date: 2024
Topics: Extractive Resources, Governance, Land, Weapons, Waste, and Pollution
Countries: Iraq
Successive conflicts in Iraq were characterised by tactics to damage its oil and industrial assets that not only led to huge economic loss, but pollution of environmental resources (air, land and water) on an unprecedented scale. The Damage and Needs Assessment (DNA)1 carried out by the World Bank Group (WBG) in 2017, estimated damages to the environmental resources at IQD85 billion (US$73 million) and sectoral losses as a result of the conflict at IQD3.5 trillion (US$3 billion). Further, this assessment estimated that up to 47 percent of natural forests in the country may have been destroyed and large areas of land have been contaminated by land mines and hazardous chemicals.