QAYYARA - Smoke from burning oil wells and a sludge of fuming crude have made life impossible for the residents of Qayyara, who were liberated from occupation by the Islamic State (ISIS) last week.
So far, no Iraqi government department has come to help residents deal with this hazard, with the Iraqi Army saying the Oil Ministry in Baghdad should take care of the blazing wells.
Rudaw was one of the first media organizations to enter the town after the complete liberation of Qayyara on Thursday. Rudaw video captures the hazard from uncontrolled, blazing oil wells.
Thick, black oil from the wells leaked into neighborhoods, burning some homes and placing others at risk of burning as well.
Many people have evacuated their houses in Qayyara to avoid the risk from the fires.
People from Qayyara told Rudaw after ISIS militants had set the wells alight, especially in the al-Shuhada neighborhood, damaging people’s health, properties and the environment.
Residents complained to Rudaw that their main problem is that there is no hospital in the town now: it was occupied by ISIS during its takeover and was looted and abandoned before ISIS fled.
“We liberated from the darkness of ISIS, but now we face the darkness of oil,” one resident told Rudaw.
Residents also complained of sufferings under ISIS for two years, including economic difficulties and dealing with the brutalities meted out by the militants. Civil servants complained they had not received their salaries for a year and half from the government, and did not receive any food.
Some said they were obliged to start farming in small gardens, but even that was not possible because ISIS began to tax them for that.
Residents expressed joy at being freed from ISIS, but now wish that the burning oil wells can come under control.
“People in Somalia are in better condition than we are,” one resident told Rudaw.
