ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Waste from illegal refineries continues to pollute Erbil’s air and water as authorities struggle to keep pace, officials and experts told Rudaw, with many such refineries still open despite government measures and pollution at “dangerous” levels.
Erbil has one of the highest levels of air pollution in Iraq. Plumes of smoke from oil refineries, inefficient generators, and many cars using low-quality fuel high in toxic substances exacerbate the issue.
Refinery owners portrayed as ‘demons’
“Some sides portray refinery owners like demons to people… as if they are the enemy of the people, poisoning them,” Maghdid Obaid, a refinery owner and a member of Erbil’s gas sellers committee, told Rudaw’s Ranj Sangawi during an episode of Legel Ranj on Sunday.
“The thing that personally made me uncomfortable is that my refinery had produced waste [as a part of] my process,” Obaid said, referring to pollutants his refinery released into water and the atmosphere without proper filtration or waste management mechanisms.
He explained that “liquid gas” would be emitted from refineries into the air without being burned, which he noted is more detrimental than gas flaring without explicitly stating if his refinery was guilty of this practice. He likened the practice to leaving a stove on in a house without burning the released gas.
In July, Sangar Salih, head of Salahaddin University’s chemistry department, told Rudaw English that “all fuels in Kurdistan.. are high in sulfur.” The buildup of toxic particulates like SO2 in the atmosphere contributes to urban haze and causes severe cardiovascular and respiratory issues.
Proper fuel refinement is necessary to reduce harmful substances, such as sulfur, through desulfurization and degassing processes. However, some of these harmful gases are released into the atmosphere through flaring.
In February 2024, Salih told Rudaw that some fuel sold in the Kurdistan Region’s markets had been mixed with naphtha and motor oil.
The researcher stated that the diluted fuel poses a threat to the user’s well-being and the environment, stressing that most of the diesel used in the Region “cannot even be called diesel.”
However, Obaid claimed that the practice of using motor oil to drive down the price of fuel - widely reported at the time - is not conducted anymore.
“You must not view all the refineries with the same lens,” Obaid said.
“There has been a lot of pressure on the refineries,” he added, claiming that considerable improvements have been made in the last several months.
Refinery closure efforts
The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has recently intensified efforts to combat air pollution.
Dilshad Hirani, director of Erbil’s environment office, told Rudaw on Sunday that at least 54 unlicensed refineries out of a stated 138 have been shut down in Erbil province.
Hirani, also a speaker on Sangawi’s episode, updated the number of refineries closed in Erbil to 57.
According to Hirani, at least 41 people were arrested because they had operated closed refineries at night after authorities ordered them to shut down.
Some of those that remain open have switched from producing fuel to bitumen, Hiran revealed, adding that they will remain open as they are abiding by environmental regulations in their currency capacity.
Bitumen factories have also been shut down for non-compliance with environmental regulations, with one being closed in December in the Soran administration.
Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masour Barzani led a meeting with relevant authorities last week to discuss pollution issues in Erbil and Duhok provinces. They decided that legal action must be taken against those who pollute the environment, including oil refineries, generators, and factories.
In 2017, the Kurdistan Region’s natural resources ministry announced the closure of dozens of these refineries. Similar measures have been taken in subsequent years, but the effort to eliminate them has proven futile, with operations continuing to resurface across the Region.
In July, a source told Rudaw English on the condition of anonymity, that only three refineries in the Kurdistan Region conduct proper fuel refining processes - Lanaz refinery, KAR Group’s oil refinery in Erbil, and Qaiwan Group’s refinery in Sulaimani - and that other unlicensed and unregulated places are refineries only by name.
Hirani admitted that the three are the only licensed refineries in the Kurdistan Region.
Regarding the ones that remain open, he said that “most of them are good but they do not have a permit.”
The KRG’s environment protection and improvement board said in June that they could issue decrees to shut down factories and refineries that are accused of harming the environment, but lack the executive authority to implement such orders.
Many of these refineries are backed by "influential people and officials," Ghalib Muhammad, then head of Sulaimani's energy committee and a vocal critic of the KRG, claimed in 2017.
In August, Erbil authorities shut down around 60 illegal refineries following a directive from Governor Omed Khoshnaw.
In a renewed effort to combat air pollution, the KRG’s environment board has now set its eyes on reducing smoke from restaurant grills.
“We will set up filters for Kebab [grills],” Hirani said on the show, explaining that they have begun requiring the use of gas filters for shops that have grilled food.
“We don’t know if this causes illness or not,” he admitted, adding that they are “mostly” doing it to reduce the sight of black smoke.
Long-term health implications
Dana Mawlood, vice president of the University of Kurdistan Hawler (UKH) and an environmental expert, said that the amount of particulate matter (PM) in Erbil’s air exceeds the World Health Organization’s (WHO) annual air guideline value by more than tenfold, reaching “dangerous” levels.
He said that Erbil and Basra are the “most polluted” cities in Iraq, adding that Sulaimani and Duhok fare better, with the latter leading in general.
Warning of the long-term implications of pollution, Mawlood stressed that refinery waste in water and soil takes substantial amounts of time to be reduced, which in turn reduces the life expectancy of nearby inhabitants.
“The cost… far outweighs the profit generated by the refinery, as it demands significant funding,” Mawlood said about the process of removing pollutants released by the refineries.
With the poor management of pollutants, there is concern about it seeping into water used for agriculture and aquafarming, affecting the produce that ends up in the markets. High concentrations of sulfur that low-quality fuel puts into the atmosphere eventually come down as acid rain.
Leaded gasoline, once common, has been globally banned due to its toxic effects, particularly on children's cognitive development. Despite the ban, Mawlood said that some fuels used in the Kurdistan Region still contain lead.
He added that the human body cannot remove the high concentrations of toxic substances in ingested food, compromising the immune system and considerably shortening life spans.
In 2019, the environment board passed a decree seeking punishment of people who pollute or litter. Driving a vehicle with high emissions would incur a 200,000 dinar ($168 at the time) fine and traffic police could decide to confiscate a vehicle. Refineries and factories face much larger fines.
However, the board regularly complains that they lack the executive authority to enforce their regulations.
“We are not an executive body… We oversee their [other ministries] work,” Abdulrazaq Khailani, the spokesperson for the environmental board, told Rudaw in June.
Ranjdar Kamaran, a member of the Centre for Environmental Studies at UKH said that current efforts are “numbing” environmental concerns and are not addressing the problems at their roots.
.jpeg "Ranjdar Kamaran speaking during a Legel Ranj episode on January 19, 2025. Photo: screengrab/Rudaw")
“The root-cause solution is in the thoughts and ideas of young people,” Kamaran said, noting that temporary measures can be circumvented while environmental damage persists.
