Iran war pollution could persist for years around the country’s capital, Tehran, and the Gulf region as oil slicks contaminate Qeshm Island and Oman’s coast, an environmental researcher warned Thursday.
Dr Diana Francis, associate professor and head of Khalifa University’s Environmental and Geophysical Sciences Laboratory in Dubai, told The National that burning fuel, destroyed infrastructure and contaminated debris could cause prolonged exposure.
Francis said acute smoke pollution could last from hours to about a week, while contaminated dust, soil and rubble could affect communities intermittently for months or years.
She identified Tehran-Karaj and areas near Gulf refineries, ports and industrial sites as particularly exposed.
Oil has separately entered Hara mangrove forests on Iran’s Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz, according to state news agency IRNA.
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Iranian authorities said cleanup work had begun. In Oman, whose capital is Muscat, oil from the disabled Caroline Bezengi tanker has reached the Arabian Sea coastline.
The United Nations’ International Maritime Organization said the vessel was carrying about 800,000 barrels of Russian oil when it became stranded off Oman on June 30.
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Omani authorities initially placed the slick at nearly 400 square kilometres around the wildlife-rich Hallaniyat Islands.
The National later reported an estimate exceeding 2,000 square kilometres, but the higher figure was not attributed to an official measurement.
Doug Weir, director of Britain’s Conflict and Environment Observatory, said available satellite data did not yet establish the full scale or duration of the war’s environmental damage.
Greenpeace Middle East and North Africa campaigner Farah Al Hattab said oil could contaminate sediments and marine food chains, threatening mangroves, coral reefs, seagrass, fisheries and coastal livelihoods. She also warned that a major spill could affect desalination infrastructure used for regional water supplies.
