And by refining the stateвЂ™s control of chemicals, the team is dead set on preventing a repeat of ISISвЂ™s exploitation of pesticides and fertilizers to make bombs. By enhancing the governmentвЂ™s capabilities, this programme ought to help Iraq as it cleans up its tattered landscape. Beginning this year, the Iraqi government and UN Environment have partnered up to build a cross-ministry team capable of tackling these pollution woes head on. If all goes according to plan, though, some help might finally be at hand. Battered already by a raft of serious pre-existing air and water quality issues, many Iraqis вЂ“ farmers, respiratory disease sufferers, and all вЂ“ feel their war hasnвЂ™t yet ended. In one of the more egregious environmental calamities, a makeshift ISIS refinery leaked an 11В km-long oil trail near Hawija. The ground is still laced with noxious chemicals, and the countryвЂ™s waterways are still sullied with everything from oil spills to mustard gas residue. ISIS (also known as the Islamic State or DaвЂ™esh) has more or less been defeated in Iraq, but throughout the areas it once occupied, the groupвЂ™s toxic legacy lives on. вЂњItвЂ™s a terrifying feeling when your lungs donвЂ™t work,вЂќ he said. As the acrid smoke and plumes of dust seeped through the window cracks into MohammedвЂ™s room, no manner of medication or precautions could keep the billowing filth at bay. First, ISIS fighters lined the streets with burning tires, and then they blew up strategic installations across the city, including a pesticides plant. The fighting made everything much worse.вЂќД«ut now, as the occupiers set about concealing their withdrawal from circling jets, Mohammed was convinced he was going to die. вЂњPollution had always been bad because of the factories, the farm sprays, the desert dust.

And for nine months, Mohammed, an asthmatic, had just about sustained himself with inhalers and a self-imposed house arrest.

At the precise moment when ISIS fighters were prepping for their retreat from the Iraqi city of Ramadi in February 2016, Hassan Mohammed lay in bed struggling to breathe.ДЇor nine months, through the jihadist occupation of his hometown, the young engineering student had huffed and wheezed from morning to night.

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