Agnes Krocha
Who has heard of wars and conflicts that cause no destruction? As said by the former UN General Secretary, Kofi Annan, "Whatever its justifications, war brings unspeakable horror to combatants and civilians alike and can destroy in minutes what has sometimes taken generations to achieve. Beyond the human suffering it causes, war is also devastating for the environment."
There are many tragic examples, both of the past and of the present, to tell us how croplands, forests, water, soil and air quality and a hosts of other natural resources were/are destroyed by wars and armed conflicts. Many decades have gone by ever since the bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Yet, I doubt if the lives of the affected people are fully recovered yet – mentally, spiritually and physically. And there's no doubt that its environmental will take ages to be restored to its previous form, given the fact that it takes many years to form even a few inches thick of top soil. The Vietnam War, it is said, has now resulted in the land supporting only low-density grasslands in areas where prior to the war was covered by forests and mangroves. Thanks to the US forces for clearing 325,000 hectares of land during the war resulting in biodiversity loss which might be beyond redemption.
I remember in the early 90s, when the Gulf War was being fought, as a school going girl how I heard elders saying that the rain water has become black because of all the bombings and firings in the war. I don't really know whether what they had said then was true or false, but now one true thing I know is that wars can indeed turn clean water into polluted water and many more.
Along with precious human lives, clean air, soil and water were casualties of the 1990-91 Gulf war. Experts now know that when Iraqis ignited hundreds of oil wells and spilled millions of barrels of oils into the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Sea, thousands and thousands of life forms in the sea were destroyed and mangroves and coral reefs were contaminated along with other natural resources.
Then talk about the 1999 Kosovo conflict, the armed conflict prone countries of Lebanon, Israel, Iraq, Afghanistan, etc. I can only imagine how serious and widespread must be all the environmental challenges confronting them as a result of conflicts they have had. The team of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) conducting assessments on environmental impact of the conflict in Lebanon reported that 'many of the bombed and burnt out factories and industrial complexes were contaminated with a variety of toxic and health hazardous substances'. Along with this, disposing overwhelming quantities of war-related debris, cluster bombs on farmlands, health care and hospital waste management are said to be major environmental challenges there, not to speak of its widespread damaged water supply and sewage networks.
In the words of a German officer in 1918, 'dumb, black stumps of shattered trees which still stick up where there used to be villages. Flayed by splinters of bursting shells, they stand like corpses upright. Not a blade of grass anywhere. Just miles of flat, empty, broken and tumbled stone.' This reflects a little of formidable challenges wars can bring about.
Back home, we may not be turning out bones of dead people wherever we dig, but I know of places within our own state where biodiversity is being destroyed because of armed conflicts internally. Beautiful valleys in some places are being converted into lands that are not as beautiful as it used to be. There are forests that are illegally logged and lands that are encroached. Our very own natural resources are being looted under our noses – many as consequences of armed conflict.
War and armed conflict creates havoc in every sense of the term. It creates refugees, causes poverty, it destroys and handicaps governments and brings about all sorts of untold miseries. Wars and armed conflicts may occur within national borders but the effect, in the long run, is spilled over to other nations and to the whole world. Amid the injuries and wounds, brutality and death, and all the sufferings posed to human beings by war, one may wonder why prevention of environmental damage is even a concern. Yet, we need to realize that environmental damage only leads to prolongation of human miseries for decades long after the war and armed conflict is over. People and ecosystems are similar here, in the sense that, they continue to suffer even after the fighting has stopped.
Wars may be unpreventable. In fact, wars and more rumors of wars, big or small, are characteristics of the present times. Nevertheless, with a little care and forethought parties engaged in hostilities can reduce environmental damage. And as rightly stated by the former UN General Secretary Kofi Annan they do 'have a responsibility to observe international rules and agreements, such as, the Geneva Conventions that govern the conduct of war. Some of these rules, such as a prohibition of the deliberate destruction of agricultural land, have an environmental emphasis.'
The bottom line is there's nothing like peace. Where there is peace, there is stability and prosperity in every area of life. Peace is the gateway to having political, economic and civic stability that fosters sustainable development. And prevention of environmental damage in wars and armed conflict is certainly a giant step to promote peace. Let peace prevail and ever reign!
