Introduction
Crude oil extracted from wells is typically accompanied by substantial quantities of saline water, predominantly sodium chloride (NaCl), necessitating the removal of these salts and the purification of oil at factories established specifically for this purpose. The process of removing salt from crude oil is a critical step in refining operations, aimed at eliminating salts and other contaminants prior to further processing. The presence of water, salts, and solid materials in crude oil can pose significant challenges to equipment performance, leading to corrosion, contamination, and various operational inefficiencies. The desalting process generally involves blending crude oil with water, facilitating the dissolution and extraction of soluble salts.
Desalting Factories in Ahwaz
To facilitate this process in Ahwaz, the Iranian state-owned ‘National Oil Company’ inaugurated a factory near the Ahwaz oil field (the third-largest oil field globally in terms of reserves and production capacity) dedicated to completing the desalting process. This facility has expanded to include multiple units whose operations incorporate the first, second, and third phases of this process; these units contain vast concrete water basins designed to hold saline and contaminated water extracted from oil, facilitating its disposal. Official sources indicate that the capacity of these concrete basins is sufficient to accommodate the total volume of water. However, it is evident that these basins often fail to securely contain the contaminated water, leading to an overflow of this toxic effluent during rainy periods, particularly in the winter months, due to the lack of mechanisms for safely draining this water, which is laden with fatty particles that inhibit evaporation. The facility has also massively expanded its operations, with the president of the Iranian state recently inaugurating the newly expanded second phase at a cost of 58 million Euros, trebling the daily refining capacity from 110,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 330,000 bpd, and indicating the potential for further capacity increases through subsequent expansion and increased production; all of this obviously also similarly increases the potential for greater pollution.
Consequences of Desalting Facilities in Ahwaz
An in-depth analysis of industrial activities in Ahwaz reveals the Iranian state’s stark disregard for the effects of such operations, not only for the environment but also for the local population, particularly the Ahwazi Arab people. Despite the Ahwazi region’s oil and non-mineral resources accounting for over 85 per cent of the colonial Iranian state’s economy, the lived experience of the Ahwazi Arab people is characterised by systemic poverty, environmental degradation, social upheaval, economic stagnation, and catastrophic health conditions. Central to this dismal plight is the concept of necropolitics, a sociopolitical theory coined by Achille Mbembe of how social and political power is used to dictate who may live and who ‘must’ die. This model is manifested in the policies and practices of the Iranian state and its prioritisation of the profit from oil extraction over the health, well-being and lives of its Ahwazi citizens.
The oil industry, through necro-industrial practices, inflicts harm on the local Ahwazi Arab population, treating the Ahwazi people as expendable ‘collateral damage’ in its relentless pursuit of economic gain. Examining the impact of these factories on the city of Ahwaz and nearby towns and villages uncovers various catastrophic consequences, including air pollution, agricultural contamination, chronic ill health, unemployment, and migration. These are currently the most visible repercussions of the oil industry’s relentless expansion. The consequences reveal a pattern of environmental injustice where the profits generated from natural resources solely benefit the regime in Tehran while the local population is left to suffer the negative impacts. This aligns with the theory of necropolitics, wherein the state exercises power over life and death through systemic neglect, endangering the health, livelihoods, and very existence of the Ahwazi people.
Air Pollution
Air pollution is one of the primary consequences of the desalting operations, with oil pipelines often located perilously close—sometimes within 20 metres— to residential areas. Despite the construction of storage facilities for the removed saltwater near adjacent villages and towns, their ineffectual containment of sulfuric acid has rendered them sources of toxic airborne salt and acid pollutants. Moreover, the accumulation of salts, combined with the ground’s absorption of moisture that is prone to evaporation, has resulted in the release of airborne salts, further contaminating the already polluted atmosphere. The detrimental effects of this industry on regional vegetation facilitate the dispersion of these particles across vast areas, negatively impacting the health of local ecosystems. Ahwazi Arab residents support their claims of hazardous air quality by noting the absence of the migratory birds that once frequented the region, showing clear evidence of dangerously high air pollution levels. Additionally, reports from environmental organisations indicate that the salt oil company is incinerating 15 million cubic meters of sour gas annually, generating 9 million tons of carbon dioxide and 3 million tons of hydrogen sulfide per year. This accumulation of oil waste exacerbates the existing pollution, with toxic emissions and noxious winds emanating from the factory’s vicinity, making respiration exceedingly difficult and driving residents away from homes near the waste accumulation sites built near these residential areas despite the apparent dangers to residents’ health.
Health Impacts
The majority of Ahwazi Arab people living near the oil, gas, and petrochemical industries are subjected to discriminatory racial policies that deprive them of their rights as human beings. As a result, Ahwazi inhabitants are reduced to a mere expendable status, continuously and invisibly subjected to a regime of death and maiming.
The seriousness of air pollution translates into significant alterations in the environmental landscape and jeopardises the well-being not only of human beings but of all animals, plants and organisms whose existence is dependent on air quality. The direct impacts of air pollution have led to serious health consequences for the local population. Among the foremost consequences of this devastation is the increased prevalence of various chronic ailments, particularly among the Ahwazi Arab population living close to these factories, including respiratory issues such as asthma and bronchitis, lung disorders, skin cancer, and a disturbing rise in cardiovascular events. Several years ago, the mayor of Gheyzaniyeh warned of a respiratory disease outbreak affecting 8,000 individuals within a total population of 25,000, or almost 40 per cent of all the residents. The majority of cases of respiratory distress in this area were recorded among young women aged under 40, prompting many to limit their outdoor activities. Ahwazi Arab children in the area, especially in the village of Safira, have exhibited numerous dermatological problems, including rashes, eye irritation, and unusual skin discolourations. Furthermore, some residents have reported worrying observations regarding wildlife, noting changes in the colouration of the local wild foxes’ fur after exposure to the pools filled with oil-contaminated water.
Toxic Emissions
The accumulation and subsequent burial of oil waste by the relevant authorities have created gas clouds extending several kilometres over these areas, resulting in the proliferation of toxic, noxious winds that pose severe health risks. Improper disposal of oil waste and byproducts from the salt removal processes, often without adequate treatment, leads to hasty burial or abandonment of these poisonous waste products in open spaces. The state oil company transports waste via trucks, dumping it on the outskirts of Gheyzaniyeh villages. This leads to seepage into the earth, creating large, unsightly and foul-smelling patches of toxic ground. This situation is exacerbated when workers ignite the liquid waste after it has reached its highest level, resulting in intense fires that release suffocating poisonous fumes into the atmosphere. Inhalation of these pollutants correlates with the extremely high levels of chronic respiratory conditions among local Ahwazi Arab residents, as documented by various healthcare professionals treating those affected.
Agricultural Pollution
The desalting factories’ devastating effects also extend to the agricultural lands, blighting the Ahwazi Arabs’ soil as they do the lives of the people. In recent years, the winter rains have led to the waters in the contaminated pools overflowing, degrading approximately 300 hectares of agricultural terrain near the desalting facilities in the Malighat area of Gheyzaniyeh. The state oil company has shirked and evaded its responsibilities regarding land remediation, rehabilitation, and compensation for damages. Instead, the factory management deflected blame, even accusing the affected landowners of obstructing their workers from accessing the lands for cleanup. Adding insult to injury, the agricultural lands have become contaminated with heavy metals, rendering the soil unfit for agriculture for decades. In multiple instances, solid particle contaminants have leaked through ruptured pipes in the systems transporting saline water, directly polluting neighbouring farmland with oil waste. Even when repairs are carried out, the long-term consequences endure: for instance, when a rupture in the desalting factory pipe was fixed, the previously leaked water created small ponds and swamps, whose poisoned content subsequently mixed with rainwater, contaminating both wheat fields and palm orchards.
Unemployment and Displacement
While the Iranian state’s media celebrated the president’s visit to Ahwaz and the inauguration of projects, the opening of the second phase of the desalting factory—at a cost of 58 million euros—provided jobs for only 180 individuals, according to official sources. It would have been more prudent for these oil-derived financial resources to be allocated to initiatives that could employ the local Ahwazi population, whose lands have been ravaged and homes destroyed. This imperative is accentuated by the requests made by the Ahwazi Arab community in Malighat, devastated by pollution, seeking alternative housing in exchange for their ancestral homes, as they can no longer endure the ongoing contamination.
Regardless of the reasons behind this displacement, the authorities of the colonial Iranian state appear to welcome it as a beneficial outcome suiting their own objectives. Governmental decrees prohibiting new home construction illustrate a blatant disregard for the local population, compelling them to resettle outside the area and denying them the right to build within the boundaries dictated by the oil company. Existing homes often lack legal ownership documentation approved by the regime, leaving them unprotected from government confiscation, damage, or even sale without residents’ permission.
The oil company has similarly encroached upon agricultural lands, appropriating them for industrial operations. In this pursuit, Iranian authorities have constructed access roads to facilitate operations at the company and its factories, often at the expense of local agricultural areas. The state’s so-called Agricultural Organisation (Jihad Keshavarzi in Farsi) office has actively undervalued these lands before forcibly purchasing them under false pretences, effectively dispossessing the owners who have no legal recourse for complaint.
As the state oil company continues to obliterate the agricultural practices and other sustainable livelihoods traditionally relied upon by countless generations of Ahwazi Arabs, it adds further insult to the grievous injury inflicted on them and intensifies their suffering by employing workers brought in, especially from Persian regions while rejecting local personnel. This not only undermines opportunities for local agricultural work but also diminishes employment opportunities for residents within these industries. Consequently, the Ahwazi Arab populace finds themselves caught between the destructive impacts of pollution and the encroachment of Persian settlers who are brought in to occupy positions at these companies.
In conclusion, the continuous extractive oil and gas policies implemented by the successive Iranian governments in their industrial practices have severely impacted the Ahwazi Arab population by transforming their regions into heavily polluted and waste-ridden zones. The exploitation practices have created extreme poverty and marginalisation among the Ahwazi Arabs while turning their neighbourhoods into designated ” racial sacrifice zones.” They are ‘racial sacrifice zones’ because they are concentrated in areas predominantly inhabited by Ahwazi Arab rural and urban communities, which Iranian officials have unofficially designated as racially inferior.
Iran’s policies as an oil-dependent rentier state have not only exploited the natural resources of the Ahwazi region but have also systematically stripped the Ahwazi people of their fundamental rights. These violations include the right to life, the devastation of fertile lands, severely limited employment opportunities in the oil industry—opportunities predominantly reserved for Persians—significant environmental pollution, and a lack of access to clean water. Consequently, oil has turned into a curse rather than a blessing, and as a result, the socio-economic challenges faced by the Ahwazi Arabs have worsened.
The determination of the Iranian state to transform the potential immense blessing of oil—alongside the prosperity it could facilitate—into a recurrent curse for the Ahwazi Arab people cannot be overstated. The results, manifested in air pollution, widespread health crises, systemic poverty, and a pervasive destructive malignancy, ultimately reflecting an ongoing process of oppression tied to necropolitics and necro-industrial practices. Through these mechanisms, the rights and well-being of the Ahwazi Arab population are persistently undermined, exacerbating their plight and stymying their aspirations for a sustainable and equitable future.
By Rahim Hamid, an Ahwazi freelance journalist at the Dialogue Institute for Research and Studies.