Dhi Qar clarifies: The quarry burying radioactive materials is regular and does not pose a danger

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[size=52]Dhi Qar clarifies: The quarry burying radioactive materials is regular and does not pose a danger[/size]

[size=45]Dhi Qar / Hussein Al-Amel[/size]
[size=45]In conjunction with a popular campaign opposing the burying of radioactive waste in the Nasiriyah desert, the local government and the Dhi Qar Environment Directorate launched a number of clarifications indicating that the quarry for burying radioactive materials is regular and specific to pollutants belonging to the governorate only and does not pose a threat to the lives of citizens.[/size]
[size=45]The ongoing controversy between popular circles and cultural and academic elites on the one hand and the Dhi Qar government on the other hand comes amid the increasing risks of cancer, as radioactive materials and pollutants are one of the most prominent causes of the aforementioned disease, as sites and areas in Dhi Qar Governorate and the southern governorates were targeted with weapons that contain uranium. Depleted during the wars that followed the invasion of Kuwait.[/size]
[size=45]Opponents of burying radioactive waste fear that Dhi Qar Governorate will turn into a dumping ground for the waste of other governorates in this area, which will exacerbate the health and economic damage resulting from this, since the burial process is not limited to the land of the site designated for landfill only, but will also include other areas that will be forbidden to any activity planned to be established. Near the aforementioned site, they called for burying it in remote areas of other governorates, where desert constitutes a large part of its area.[/size]
[size=45]In turn, the Director of Dhi Qar Environment, Mohsen Aziz, said in an interview with (Al Mada) that “The Dhi Qar Governorate administration, in coordination with the governorate’s environment, worked from 2006 to 2016 to remove radioactive pollutants in the governorate that are spread between neighborhoods and residential areas, and we worked to establish a temporary quarry to quarantine contaminated materials.” with radiation,” indicating that “the quarry is located in the Sulaibiyat desert area, 50 km from the borders of the city center of Nasiriyah, and it is secured with a protection point by the Dhi Qar Police Command, and this point is also secured from the risks of radioactive contamination resulting from the quarry.”[/size]
[size=45]Aziz continued, “Dhi Qar Governorate, in coordination with the Ministry of Environment, has been establishing a regular quarry instead of a temporary quarry, in accordance with international specifications, and that it is allocated to specific radioactive pollutants in the governorate and not pollutants throughout the country.”[/size]
[size=45]He recalled, “A previous vote of the Dhi Qar Governorate Council prohibiting the burial of any contaminated radioactive waste coming from nearby governorates or other Iraqi governorates in Dhi Qar Governorate.”[/size]
[size=45]The Director of the Dhi Qar Environment revealed that the Atomic Energy Authority of the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research began implementing the current quarry about two weeks ago, which is the first of its kind in Iraq, according to him, noting that “the quarry is funded by the Council of Ministers and work is currently underway under the direct supervision of Governorate Administration and Dhi Qar Environment Directorate.”[/size]
[size=45]Aziz touched on what was raised about a popular campaign rejecting the establishment of the quarry, saying, “There is a misunderstanding about establishing the quarry, according to which it is a radiation graveyard to bury all radioactive waste in Iraq, and this is contrary to the truth.” He added, “We reassure everyone that the quarry is regular and designated only for burying radioactive waste in Dhi Qar.” “.[/size]
[size=45]This is considered a major achievement for the governorate, the Ministry of Environment, and all those working on establishing the quarry, who realize its importance in resolving the risks of radioactive contamination in the governorate. It is likely that the coming years will witness a complete end to the risk file of radioactive materials in Dhi Qar, in order to preserve the health of citizens in the governorate, as he put it.[/size]
[size=45]In the same context, Dr. Aqeel Al-Khafaji, one of the academics in Dhi Qar, wrote that “nuclear and radioactive waste is widespread in all countries of the world and is being treated using precise scientific methods,” and he added that “some countries do not want to keep it with them, so they market it with malicious deals to weak countries and get rid of their problems.” Previously, but with international oversight, these practices have diminished.”[/size]
[size=45]Al-Khafaji, who Al-Mada followed, found what he wrote on his personal blog that “Iraq, like any other country, has these wastes resulting from wars, distributed over its entire area. Just as every country cares about its wastes or what it inherited from its legacy, so do the Iraqi provinces,” and he added, “It is not acceptable to move Between the governorates, especially in the current ruling system, it is therefore taken for granted that the local governments refuse to let the land of Dhi Qar be a dumping ground for others.”[/size]
[size=45]The academic continued, “From the principle of integration and in comparison with the different areas of the governorates’ lands, it would have been better to establish a national site in the Ramadi or Muthanna desert to be a site for burying all waste in Iraq, as they are the governorates with the largest desert area in the country.”[/size]
[size=45]For their part, the Deputy Governor of Dhi Qar, Majid Al-Atabi, and the head of the Health and Environment Committee in the Dhi Qar Governorate Council, Ahmed Al-Khafaji, considered the establishment of the radioactive quarry a step towards eliminating the risks of radioactive contamination and does not pose direct risks to the residents of the governorate, in press statements followed by (Al-Mada).[/size]
[size=45]In mid-February 2023, environmental and societal circles expressed their concern about the dangers of war and radioactive waste in large areas of Dhi Qar Governorate, and while they confirmed the contamination of more than 100 million square meters of land contaminated with war waste, they revealed casualties among civilians as a result of the explosion of shells. And mines in those areas.[/size]
[size=45]In 2007, Dhi Qar Governorate established a special quarry for radioactive contaminated war waste in the Sulaibiyat desert area. Teams from the Radiation Protection Center transferred part of the radioactive contaminated war waste to it in cooperation with the Ministries of Environment, Science and Technology.[/size]
[size=45]The environmental reality in Dhi Qar Governorate, (its center is Nasiriyah, 350 km south of Baghdad), faces a number of challenges, the most prominent of which is the presence of war waste contaminated with radiation in a number of areas that witnessed military operations during the multiple wars that Iraq fought during the past thirty years. Dhi Qar Governorate witnessed a series of military operations and aerial bombardments during the years of the Iraqi-Iranian war (1980-1988), the Second Gulf War (1991), and the invasion of Iraq in 2003, where the international coalition forces used various types of weapons and missiles, especially cluster bombs and missiles that enter Depleted uranium is in its composition, the waste of which is a source of radioactive contamination in the governorate.[/size]
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