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"Speak to the earth, and it will teach you…The life of every creature and the breath of all people are in God's hand". --Job 12: 8, 10 (NCV)

Iraq has a rich biological history. The Mesopotamian marshlands were among the most fertile areas of the globe until they were decimated by Saddam Hussein's government in an attempt to quell an uprising after the 1991 Gulf War. The latest Iraq war has destroyed the land, air and water quality even further.

According to the Iraq Development Program, more than 50% of the Iraqi population depends on natural resources for survival. Subsistence farmers, herders and grazers have lost their only known way of living while wildlife and clean drinking water disappear by the minute. A 2003 MedAct Report estimated that 40% of the water and sanitation systems in Iraq were damaged during the first 6 months of the U.S. attack, forcing people to the only remaining source of water: polluted rivers. The United Nations has managed to restore nearly 80% of the prewar infrastructure in Baghdad, but nearly 5 million people are still without access to any sanitation.

In rural areas, Iraqis depend heavily on irrigation as a means for prosperous agriculture. As irrigation pumps are destroyed and waste water can no longer be removed, we see a greater salinization (salt build-up) and desertification (drying out) of the soil. A high saline content in the soil makes growing crops more difficult, driving farmers to use chemical fertilizers on their fields. These fertilizers degrade the soil by removing natural nutrients, forcing farmers to bring in more (salt) water, starting the cycle anew.

Last year the Department of Defense began seeking environmental specialists to serve as advisors for the Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) engineers. Working with local Iraqis, the PRTs have rebuilt much of the physical infrastructure that was destroyed since the 2003 invasion, but little is being done to correct the havoc that warfare has wreaked on the Iraqi environment. The World Bank estimates that it would cost upwards of $3.6 billion to jumpstart the recovery of the agricultural sector alone in Iraq.

As Christians, our obligation is two-fold: to care for God's creation, and to ensure the continued existence of the Iraqi people. We must do this through a combination of academic, legislative and humanitarian efforts, and we must begin now. It is up to Americans and Iraqis to work together to demand a change in policy and in practice.

For the people of Iraq, this is much more than just an environmental issue; it is an issue of survival.

Lindsay Hildebrant is a recent graduate of Adrian College in Adrian, MI with a degree in Environmental Studies, Philosophy and Religion. She is currently interning with the Policy and Organizing Department at Sojourners.

Comments

Often on these threads, Iraq War apologists like to say that things are going well for the still-living Iraqis, that they've got the water and food and power they need, and we pessimists are just being misled by liberal media to think otherwise. If this describes you, can you please tell us whether a) Lindsay is just making all this up, b) It's all a matter of interpreting the statistics, c) It doesn't matter because Iraqis should be grateful to us for killing them to save them, or d) None of the above.

Posted by: I and I | March 21, 2008 1:53 PM

The silence of the neo-con war apologists is deafening. I guess that clean drinking water and decent living conditions for the "freed" Iraqis just doesn't inspire "shock and awe."

Posted by: JamesMartin | March 21, 2008 7:39 PM

Still waiting...

Posted by: I and I | March 24, 2008 5:13 PM

Re observations above from afar - on the last post.

Can you trust the same crew to look after your environment at home? Often there seems to be deliberate stalling on any tiny thing which may be seen as environmentally friendly if it gets in the way of the mates of government.

Talking to a friend just returned from an agricultural development project in central Asia, re oil. He observd that it seems to be politically easier for western nations to trash the world, than to consider that it may be possible to reduce the demand for resources and not engage in such wars. Not a good prospect.

We may endup trashing ourselves as well.

Tues 25 at 8:55 pm WA WST

Posted by: johnh | March 25, 2008 7:54 AM

a)- she told the truth. The truth as you get from ABC-CBS-NBC-CNN. These same networks that would not show the people jumping to their deaths at the WTC or the Radical Terrorists kicking and burning the dead bodies of American civilians that were there to rebuild the infrustructure that Saddam destroyed. The Networks that refused to fully report the beheading of American civilians. But they were more than ravenoue to show some military personnal that got out of hand and embaressed some detainees all the time, but left out that none of them died.
b) - the stats will say what you want them to say. There is the little white lie - bold face lie - the statistic.
c) - talk to most of those that survived WWII. Corrie ten Boom had a lot to say about those that died in war so that others could live. If is was not worth going to war in the 40's - why is there so much footage of people in Europe waving and praising the Allied troups for their liberation even though so many of them had lost family and close friends. I guess they would have been better off had we just let Hilter have Europe and establish his thousand year Reich.
d) - how about all the above. Lindsey and others like her in Sojo Land are fine as long as their lilly white backside is save at home in the US.

I have said this before, war is the last act of a moral soceity to deal with an immoral entity. So - how many more US resoultions should we have passed and allowed Saddam to flip off before we did anything? How many more people are we going to allow to die in Darfur before we (whoever 'we' ends up being) do something intentional that limits their ability to continue what they are currently doing to the refugees in Darfur?

And so are those that are dying in Darfur.

Blessings -
.

Posted by: Moderatelad | March 26, 2008 8:44 AM

"ABC-CBS-NBC-CNN. These same networks that would not show the people jumping to their deaths at the WTC or the Radical Terrorists kicking and burning the dead bodies of American civilians that were there to rebuild the infrustructure that Saddam destroyed. The Networks that refused to fully report the beheading of American civilians."

Funny, I saw those very networks report those stories, quite in depth. You state that they didn't. Is that a little white lie, a bold-faced lie, or a statistic?

Anyway, this article is about water and Iraqi well-being. You responded the way I expected war apologists would respond (if at all): changing the subject and beating up the messenger.

Posted by: I and I | March 26, 2008 9:38 AM

'...networks report those stories...'

They reported a very sanitized version of the story. They for the most part refused to show any video footage - if they did it was long short with very little detail. (But we were up close and personnal with the Allied anticts in Iraq)

I was never 'beating up' the messanger. I just came to the conclusion that she was writing based on her research that looked like it came straight from the Big Four.

As for being a 'war apologists' - I am not. I have said that it is the 'last act' not the first point. No one has come up with how many UN resolutions it takes to dismiss that some world leader is not listening and we might have to go to the next level. It is interesting that those who want a 'schedule' to leave Iraq refuse to put forth a schedule for what would lead us to move forward on the same issue.

You seem to be one that is anti-war - fine, stand your ground. Be happy with your convictions as others are with theirs.

So - with as ineffective as the UN and the world has been with Darfur - what do you see should be our next step? Remember - people are dying with no hope of that stopping while you are thinking.

Posted by: Moderatelad | March 26, 2008 10:44 AM

"Darfur - what do you see should be our next step?"

Do you trust the Bush Administration to respond responsibly to this crisis?

Posted by: I and I | March 26, 2008 2:16 PM

Could you answer my question first. I did not even refer to the Bush Adm in my comments.
WW-IandI-D?

Posted by: Moderatelad | March 26, 2008 2:31 PM

Poisoned Water, Poisoned People (by Lindsay Hildebrant)

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