Restoring War-Torn Environments: Stronger UNEA Commitments and International Collaboration

Yaqi Wang | Agence France-Presse

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The harsh environmental impact of wars varies greatly. They have left many countries with serious environmental legacies related to military pollution, with negative impacts on public health and huge costs for environmental remediation. High-intensity conflicts also require and consume large quantities of fuel, leading to massive CO2 emissions which lead to contaminated air, along with soil and water, undermining the livelihoods of the innocent. During a recent committee session, Syria stated that its just ended conflict had damaged infrastructure and water, as well as caused major health impacts; Syria’s main objective aligned with this topic was for all countries to come together and understand that they all shared the same earth, and they must unite as one to find a common goal in order to solve the crisis of environmental preservation.

Ukraine, with aims closely related to Syria, spoke out by saying that environmental protection was an urgent global necessity that required heightened awareness; since Ukraine itself was going through this very issue of conflict, that was not unexpected. The war between Russia and Ukraine has had a devastating impact on Ukraine’s soil, and has disrupted agricultural production; toxic pollution risks have also increased. Ukraine suggested solutions such as long-term partnership between countries, with it being rooted strongly to science, technology, and cooperation. 

Oil repository burning in Zhytomyr, Ukraine.

The United States also spoke out, believing that supporting conflict-affected regions was extremely crucial due to the fact that some countries did not have enough resources, manpower or technology to support themselves after war and rehabilitate quickly. Some regions can have negative environmental impacts long after the guns fall silent, such as unexploded ordnance, which strongly impacts humans, ecosystems and biodiversity. As the United States has very developed unexploded ordnance (UXO) teams from the military, they were very open to provide support for other countries struggling with the issue of unexploded explosives; for example, Gaza. The Gaza Rights Centre (GRC) estimated that around 20,000 unexploded munitions, including bombs, missiles, and artillery shells dropped by Israel, remained buried across the nation.

^ Palestinians live among the unexploded missiles and ammunition fired by Israel in Gaza.

Another major aspect of post-conflict environmental impacts is water. Many different countries recovering from intense war face obstacles such as severe water scarcity and water pollution. Afghanistan, for example, stated that it had very problematic water scarcity issues, and it “needed help from other nations to solve this”, with the example of other nations offering technology to support them. They also suggested other countries to “run experiments on their soil polluted by conflict and perform their research there". For instance, the United States, with no polluted soil from conflict, could do their environmental preservation research in Afghanistan.

Apart from Afghanistan, Lebanon also faced huge obstacles related to environmental impacts on water. According to Afghanistan, there had been “many carcasses polluting streams”, and unfortunately, the streams are still severely polluted to this day. The country hopes to form partnerships and clear all of the affected waterways. 

In order to solve this global issue of environmental preservation in post-conflict zones, many countries have spoken out with possible solutions that cover different aspects and perspectives of this problem. For example, the United States highlighted that countries should take a more proactive approach to support affected nations when they can, and that they should continue to support and endorse the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) as well as the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). However, not all countries are willing to voluntarily reach out to affected nations and provided resources; as such, Syria has come up with the idea of a “credit system” for all helpers, which not only creates a standard that volunteering countries want to meet, but also encourages more countries to help by publicly recognising their efforts. 

Ultimately, the environmental devastation left behind from war is a strong reminder that long after the conflict ends, ecosystems struggle to recover, communities live with contaminated land and water, and future generations inherit the severe environmental damage.