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Report:
Afghanistan Faces Serious Environmental Crisis
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| Before U.S.
Attacks |
After U.S.
Attacks |
LONDON, Jan. 6 (IslamOnline
& News Agencies) - In addition to severe human loss, the US war on
Afghanistan has also led to a wide range of negative effects on the environment
which may take a long time to rectify.
For instance in a recent
report, the Baltimore Chronicle said that there is a fear that an "Afghan
War Syndrome" may appear in the region. This is marked by vague ailments
and carcinomas linked to the U.S. military’s use of depleted uranium in the
war.
DU was used as part of
missiles, projectiles and bombs in the battlefield, reported the Baltimore
Chronicle, a U.S. monthly paper.
"As a result of the current conflicts, people of Afghanistan, who had been
dying of starvation up till now, are likely to savor a more modern mode of
death: death owing to radioactive materials pulverized over barren mountains and
harsh plains in modern world's war on terrorism," the Baltimore Chronicle
reported.
The fear, though, is that it is not only the Afghan people who will suffer, the
paper added. According to the Chronicle, there is a great possibility that the
wind and rivers would carry the depleted uranium across Afghanistan's borders,
putting the people in Pakistan - the staunchest U.S. ally on the "war on
terrorism" - and other neighboring countries at risk of being exposed to
the health hazard.
On it's website, the U.K. based magazine, the New Scientist said that
Afghanistan's once rich habitat and wildlife, which are quietly being crushed by
war are currently being ignored.
Instead, humanitarian and
political concerns are dominating the headlines, reported the New Scientist.
The U.N. is dispatching a
team of investigators to the region in February to evaluate the damage, reported
the site. "A healthy environment is a prerequisite for
rehabilitation," says Klaus Töpfer, head of the U.N. Environment
Programme.
Much of south-east
Afghanistan was once lush forest watered by monsoon rains. Forests now cover
less than two per cent of the country, they added.
Furthermore, the intense
bombing intended to flush out the last of the Taliban troops, is destroying or
burning much of what remains, the New Scientist said.
"The refugee crisis is
also wrecking the environment, and much damage may be irreversible."
Forests and vegetation are
being cleared for much-needed farming, but the gains are likely to be only
short-term.
"Eventually the land
will be unfit for even the most basic form of agriculture," warns Hammad
Naqi of the World Wide Fund for Nature in Pakistan. Refugees - around four
million at the last count - are also cutting into forests for firewood.
However, the bombs are making
life particularly hard for wildlife, affecting all forms of life such as birds
and cattle.
"Birds such as the
pelican and endangered Siberian crane cross eastern Afghanistan as they follow
one of the world's great migratory thoroughfares from Siberia to Pakistan and
India.
But the number of birds
flying across the region has dropped by a staggering 85 per cent," said the
New Scientist.
"Cranes are very
sensitive and they do not use the route if they see any danger," says Ashiq
Ahmad, an environmental scientist for the WWF in Peshawar, Pakistan, who has
tracked the collapse of the birds' migration this winter.
Even the rugged mountains are
under intense pressure from the bombing and invasions of refugees and fighters.
They once provided a safe
haven for mountain leopards, gazelles, bears and Marco Polo sheep - the world's
largest species. "The same terrain that allows fighters to strike and
disappear back into the hills has also, historically, enabled wildlife to
survive," says Peter Zahler of the Wildlife Conservation Society, based in
New York.
Some refugees are hunting
rare snow leopards to buy safe passage across the border, said the site.
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