Young Iraqi started initiative (not my garbage but my country) to clean his city streets. Started alone, now he joined by so many others and the group growing

As part of the Cleanup Ambassadors, a group of green activists, they wear boots and gloves and pick up muddy Styrofoam boxes, water bottles, aluminium cans, and wet trash along Iraq’s Tigris River.

Baghdad:

Baghdad’s Tigris River is full of trash, but a group of young volunteers are cleaning it up as part of an unusual environmental project in the war-torn country. As part of the Cleanup Ambassadors project, they wear boots and gloves and pick up muddy Styrofoam boxes, water bottles, aluminium cans, and wet trash. “This area hasn’t been cleaned up since 2003,” a bystander says, referring to the years of fighting that have happened since Saddam Hussein’s government was overthrown by a US-led invasion.

After the war, Iraq is still in danger from a number of environmental problems that are linked to each other, such as a lack of water, dust storms, and climate change. The 200 volunteers from Baghdad who are cleaning up trash from a part of one of the great rivers that gave rise to ancient Mesopotamian civilizations want to help find a solution. Rassel, a 19-year-old volunteer who works under Baghdad’s Imams Bridge, said, “It breaks my heart to see how bad the banks of the Tigris are.” “We want to make things better. I want to change the way my city looks.” In a country where people still throw trash on the ground, this task is impossible. 

Wildlife can’t breathe because of trash.

Ali, who planned the event, said, “There’s a lot of plastic, nylon bags, and corks.” The group then gave their trash to the Baghdad City Council, which took it away and dumped it. The most common place to dump trash is in the Tigris River. It is one of Iraq’s two main rivers, along with the Euphrates, and it is affected by many things in its environment. In Turkey and Iran, dams have been built upstream on rivers or their tributaries, and the rivers are overused and full of waste from homes, factories, and farms. The trash that gets carried downstream fills up marshes and riverbanks, putting both land and water animals in danger. 

Big clouds of smoke

Most trash is burned in open landfills where it is dumped, sending out smoke that is bad for the environment. This happens in the southern Mesopotamian Marshes of Iraq. This is one of the largest inland deltas in the world, but Saddam drained it all dry. In 2016, they were named a UNESCO World Heritage site because of their unique wildlife and historical importance. Today, hundreds of tonnes of trash are burned outside the village of Souq al-Shuyukh, which is the entrance to the marshes. The white smoke from these fires can be seen for many kilometres. Alwash says that the real cost is the loss of Iraqi lives. “Burning trash in the open makes the air dirty,” he said. But the state doesn’t have enough money to build places to recycle. Flaring, which is the burning of gas that leaks out during oil production, makes air pollution much worse.