Environmental cost of wars

The cost of war cannot be measured by the loss of human lives and property alone, but also by environmental damage. The ongoing conflict in the Middle East and its spillover to other areas is causing massive damage to the environment. Sri Lanka too has been put in a situation of having to cope with the possible damage to its marine life from the sinking of an Iranian ship off the southern coast of Sri Lanka.

The Marine Environment Protection Authority (MEPA) and the Department of Coast Conservation and Coastal Resource Management said they are keeping a close watch, monitoring the situation to establish any oil spill. Despite their reluctance to say how much the damage to marine life in the area would be, debris has already been washing up and there are signs of an oil spill from the sunken ship.

From the start of the attacks on Iran, Israelis and Americans have dropped bombs and fired missiles on Iran’s oil refineries, military bases, industrial areas and nuclear facilities. Iran, in turn, has launched retaliatory suicide drones and ballistic missiles at similar targets inside Israel and across Gulf States, including the UAE, Qatar and Bahrain.

When Iran’s fuel depots were bombed, causing massive fires, there were warnings of serious hazards to people’s health caused by what was described as black acid rain, with soot, smoke, oil particles and sulphur compounds falling to the earth.

There are reports from Iran that the continued aerial bombardments have also impacted concrete, rocks and metals, creating clouds of dust mixed with heavy metals, potentially radioactive residues and toxic acidic particles. When this mixture settles, soil fertility significantly degrades and groundwater becomes unfit for consumption. The impact can extend to threaten biodiversity. Entire areas that were once arable or habitable may require years of environmental remediation, according to Iranian media reports.

According to the international environmental group Greenpeace, wars have caused massive environmental damage in the past few years.

In Gaza, Greenpeace said there has been severe damage to water, sanitation, cropland and fisheries, alongside estimates that the first 120 days of the war generated more than half a million tonnes of carbon dioxide.

Sudan is another example, where research from the Conflict and Environment Observatory (CEOBS) shows how war is driving deforestation, agricultural decline, industrial pollution and the collapse of health and sanitation systems, undermining people’s access to food, water and energy. Areas are becoming harder to inhabit, less healthy and less resilient to climate breakdown.

According to Greenpeace, in Iran, within days of the first US-Israel strikes, the Strait of Hormuz became a flashpoint, with dozens of tankers carrying billions of litres of oil trapped in the Persian Gulf. Greenpeace Germany warned that a single oil spill in the Gulf could damage this fragile marine habitat beyond repair, with devastating consequences for people, animals and plants in the region, adding to the human toll this war has already taken on local communities.

It is in the midst of this massive environmental devastation that some countries are hell-bent on starting wars and dragging many countries that are not party to such conflicts down an environmental precipice. Island nations like Sri Lanka will be among those worst affected by marine pollution caused by such wars, and with one incident already occurring within the country’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), the authorities must take serious note and express concern to international bodies so that the country can at least make a claim for reparations to clean up the mess left behind.