Syria, the heart, the heart is poisoned with contracts of war, neglect, and inaction environment

Deir Al -Ajousha Zorus, Syria – The first thing that amazes you around the desert of eastern Syria is the vast landscape: its silence, the continuous heat, and the dry hot ambiguity of the wind. The journey feels to Deir Osz forged as if she is traveling in time, with a few clear signs of modernity while looking at the road.

But then a wide body of sludge, a black scar, appears through the beige desert. The smell is a thick chemical tang of petroleum that overwhelms the back of your throat. It looks almost beautiful, until you remember – it’s the river of death.

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We got to the oil field in Taim in Zoron Monastery A boycott to see one of the few oil facilities in Syria, which is controlled by the government in Damascus.

After years of war, it was expected some damage to the oil field, but this is not – a toxic testimony of one of the most poisoned and permanent Syrian conflict heritage.

Oil leakage is not the following battle, but the result of decades of neglect and war. What leaks here is a mixture of cancer from the produced water – a secondary result of the oil and gas extraction process – and raw oils, which were deposited safely under the ground.

But the war years destroyed the infrastructure that did so, and it was never fixed. Therefore, the mixture flows without deterrent, 24 hours a day, leaks to desert soil, as it heads towards the groundwater layer below and attracts its path near the Euphrates River, which is the Life of Deir Az forged.

Lack of government support

The absence of the appropriate government that led to this environmental disaster can be seen elsewhere in Deir Az Zor.

The boycott – which is located in the Far East of Syria and separated it from the crowded West and fertilization in the country, was miles away from the desert – on the sidelines of the Syrian state for a long time even before the war.

Today, this lack of governance is clear in broken bridges, full villages and oil fields that were left to rot. Few journalists do the trip due to the driving from Damascus. It may take up to half a day – through a few checkpoints and extensions from the empty road where security is never guaranteed – and the flights should be complete before they become dark.

In the pumps dating back to contracts that pull the oil from the ground, we found a few guards looking for a refuge of heat in the security publication that lined up on its fabric. They approached us with guns flowing through their shoulders, one of them rides a built Chinese motorcycle, the black logo of ISIL (ISIS) mixture on the lamp.

One of the men laughs when I refer to it.

“We bought it like this,” he says. “No one bothering you to get rid of him.” It is a shrimp reminder that the recent past ghosts are still engraved not only in memory but in the daily life mechanism.

Muhammad Al -Tulle, one of the safety engineers in the pump, returned matters to the crisis on hand.

He said: “He immediately kills birds,” and he is approaching to tell us about the dangerous black sludge we have seen. “Nobody cares, please tell the world with this radioactive toxic waste.”

The oil field workers left between 2012 and 2013, when ISIS began to infiltrate into Deir Az, falsehood before the full seizure of the province in 2014.

The workers returned as soon as the group was defeated in the region in 2017, only to find the River of expansion from this oil residue, which is no longer pumped again at the oil table deeply underground. Nothing has changed since then, even after falling President Bashar al -Assad In December and the end of the Syria war.

The new Syrian government faces the challenges of security and governance throughout the country, as it tries to transform the page after 13 years of conflict. The fighting happened periodically with government forces and local militias, which led to hundreds of deaths, and Israel continues to bomb the country and seize more lands.

With the necessary reconstruction across the country, this oil field in Deir Az false is not at the highest government priority list.

Code

Walking around the field, and the damage resembles a tissue woven from every killer faction here.

There are bullet holes in the pipelines, luxurious holes in huge fuel cabinets, and deformed residue of structures and steel tools.

ISIS drained the field to finance its mandate. The US -led coalition and Russian aircraft bombed the oil field on the hunger of this financing.

The forces of the regime, Assad, the Iranian -backed militia, and the local tribes, fought bloody battles for their control. The result: The inheritance poisoned for all civilians in Deir Azjor.

To understand the disaster scale, we launched a drone. When I went up in the air, it became clear that the oil leakage was not a blessing.

It is a wide dark river, which extends unabated. A 10 -kilometer scars (six miles) is still growing. From the top, the scale is amazing, so we requested satellite images. From space, the time interval is more clear; What started as a pool after the first strikes was reversed in a visible lake of the satellite orbit.

“You have to understand, before all this, that this was not here,” Firras Al -Hamad, director of the oil field operations in Time. “This water is mixed with oil, we used to inject it under the ground. The protocol. (But) for years, it has only poured 24-7.”

His interpretation was simple, and it seems that science is clear and direct. This is the productive water, a toxic secondary result for oil extraction. The solution is also simple: the new disposal wells should be drilled.

But this is Syria, and we are neglecting the Monastery of Osz false, as hospitals operate without coins and electricity a few hours a day. Environmental repair is not registered even in a priority list.

“We asked,” a local official admitted, referring to both the current and previous Syrian governments. “We promised. Nothing is happening.”

Upon calling, the central government in Damascus did not provide any response.

The biggest fear is only 15 km (nine miles): the Euphrates River, which is the lifeblood of millions across Syria and Iraq.

Currently, poison Slick did not reach him. But the desert does not have mercy. The heavy storm, sudden flooding and poison can flow into the river, pollution of crops, wells and drinking water in the direction of the river.

In the open after hidden, it is the cost of a remaining war.

Here, in the silence of the heart of oil in Syria, the poison river spreads without deterrence.

Oil, the supplier that has maintained this area one day, and the provision of jobs and prosperity, is now threatening to destroy it. The residents of Deir Oise leaves falsehood waiting, and caught between yesterday’s ruins and a growing catastrophe in front of their eyes.

A catastrophe of the world only pays little attention, and the flowing era that works as one of the inheritance of the unannounced Syrian war.