LAJANE HARKI, Kurdistan Region – Illegal oil refineries continue to take a toll on public health and agriculture in the Kurdistan Region despite a government clampdown on the facilities. 

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A year ago, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) began a crackdown on the illegal refineries that wreak havoc on the environment, ordering 164 outfits to shut their gates.  

The move has seen some success and in August the new government formed a committee to reassess and possibly expand the number of refineries it will shut down. 

But it will take much more than just locking the gates to clean up the toxic legacy of the refineries that have been pumping poison into the water, soil, and air for 16 years.

Both legal and illegal operations exist near Lajane Harki, steadily growing in number since the United States toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003. They have had a devastating impact on village life. 

Villagers in the area say the toxic fumes from the refineries have cause cancers, miscarriages, and breathing difficulties. Pollutants have also poisoned the cropland, harming local agriculture. 

Some believe the closures are proceeding at a snail’s pace because refineries are owned by influential people with ties to those in power. 

In Lajane Harki village, where they are losing their lives and income, time is running out and villagers are angry.

“Chemical Ali bombed Halabja once,” says farmer Yassin Khan Abdel, referring to Ali Hassan al-Majid, Iraqi defence minister under Saddam Hussein who was responsible for the 1988 chemical weapons attack on the Kurdish city that killed at least 5,000 people. 

“These people bomb us with poison every day.”

Photos by Hajar Jawhar / Rudaw