Gulf War
On
26 January 1991, when the Iraqi army left Kuwait, it sabotaged
a large part of the Emirate oil wells, Mina al Ahmadi’s
oil terminal and anchored oil tankers. They ignited the spilled
oil, in order to cause maximum damage to the country’s oil
industry.
Between
700,000 and 900,000 tonnes of oil were spilled at sea over a number
of weeks, before international intervention squads succeeded in
containing the stream. Provided that estimates are accurate, this
was the biggest oil spill in human history.
Oil wells on fire (Source: E.C.P.A.D./France/Patrick Babef)
Response
Kuwait,
the United Arab Emirates and Iran boomed economically and ecologically
sensitive areas and implemented various forms of pollution response,
in many cases with foreign equipment and expertise.
Claims
for damages were presented to the United Nations Compensation Commission
(UNCC), in charge of the distribution of war damage compensation
by Iraq.
Industrial sites protected by boom (Source: Cedre)
Impact
The effects of
these hundreds of thousands of tonnes of oil could immediately be
seen on coral, fish and shellfish. Long term regular monitoring
was essential to follow the re-establishment of aquatic and coastal
flora and fauna in the affected area.
The high mortality of fish populations benefited zooplankton which
reproduced rapidly and became abundant due to the lack of predators.
Estimations indicated that 30,000 seabirds were directly killed
by exposure to oil. Nearly 50% of the coral was affected as well
as hundreds of square kilometres of seaweed fields being flooded
with oil slicks.
The
risks were also high for turtles, which were used to coming to breed
on these islands and became coated in oil. The seawater remained
contaminated by metals, although it is not known whether this was
due to remaining oil from this spill or another source of pollution.
Sheen could regularly be seen on the shoreline.
Name: Gulf war
Date: 26 January 1991
Location: The Persian Gulf
Cause of spill: war
Type of pollutant: oil
Quantity spilled: between 700,000 and 900,000 tonnes
The
coral showed symptoms of severe stress, causing bleaching and high
mortality as a result of periods of reduction in temperature of
the water surface during the winter following the war.
Many
environmental factors took longer to return to normal than was expected
by scientists. Other factors on top of the post-Gulf war impacts
were evoked, such as the influence of climate change, various sources
of air and water pollution etc.
The effects on human health are difficult to observe as they involve
too many different factors, the dissociation of responsibilities
for events which may be involved and sufficient hindsight to be
able to see all the effects.
Compensation
The
commission received approximately 170 claims relating to the environment,
seeking a total of approximately 80 billion US dollars in compensation.
The
claims for the environment concerned both environmental damage and
the depletion of natural resources in the Persian Gulf. The environmental
damages resulting from oil-well fires and the discharge of oil into
the sea were taken into account. The costs incurred by governments
outside of the region in providing assistance to countries that
were directly affected by the environmental damage were also included.
This assistance included the alleviation of damage caused by the
oil-well fires, the prevention and clean-up of pollution and the
provision of manpower and supplies.
109
of these claims were awarded compensation, however the compensation
awarded for this category amounts to a little over 5 billion dollars,
a mere 6.2 % of the claimed amount.
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Last update: July 2007