Environment Minister: Desertification affects 70% of the country's lands

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[size=52]Environment Minister: Desertification affects 70% of the country's lands[/size]

[size=45]Environment Minister Nizar Amedy confirmed that dealing with mines in Iraq needs financial allocations amounting to 3 billion dollars, stressing that the number of victims of war remnants during the current year amounted to 150 people, stressing that desertification affects 70% of the country's lands.[/size]
[size=45]Amedi said, “The southern governorates, especially Basra, are among the most polluted governorates, due to the type and volume of activities that carry out their work within their borders, as the governorate has many oil fields, which leave large amounts of pollutants.”[/size]
[size=45]He added, "Governmental institutions are the most harmful to the environment, due to the volume of government activities and the pollutants they release to the surrounding environment that cause air, water and soil pollution, such as the activities of the oil sector, the electric power sector, the health sector, the industrial sector, and the municipal sector."[/size]
[size=45]He pointed out, "The responsibility for establishing and sustaining green belts throughout Iraq rests with the Ministry of Agriculture and the provincial directorates of agriculture."[/size]
[size=45]And Amedi added, “The Ministry of Environment has identified a number of main reasons for the delay in implementing the green belt around cities.” He noted, "The most important of these reasons is the lack of financial allocations that must be provided for the sustainability of the green belts, in addition to the lack of water allocations that must be provided for these vast areas due to the water scarcity that the country has been suffering from during the last decade."[/size]
[size=45]Amedy explained, "The amount of desertified lands threatened with desertification and degradation has reached about 70% of the country's area."[/size]
[size=45]And he talked about “a large scale of contamination in Iraq with mines and other war remnants, as the total area of ​​​​the contaminated areas is about 2880 square kilometers throughout the governorates of Iraq.”[/size]
[size=45]Amedy pointed out that “there are tens of millions of mines and war remnants widely spread in most regions of Iraq.”[/size]
[size=45]And he stressed, “These large polluted areas left thousands of victims of mines and explosive ordnance, as the number of injuries this year reached about more than 150 victims, including martyrs and wounded, including children and women.”[/size]
[size=45]Amedy saw, “It is very difficult to declare Iraq free of mines and war remnants during the next few years.”[/size]
[size=45]And Amedi went on to say that “the file needs large financial allocations of more than three billion dollars only for survey and removal work to reduce the volume of pollution and explosion accidents to 90% of the amount of pollution area.”[/size]
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