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When Syria’s oil industry collapsed, civilians in non-regime areas had to resort to toxic and polluting coping strategies to ensure fuel for cooking, transportation and heating.
Here’s what @wammezz found using #OSINT and remote sensing https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2020/04/24/dying-to-keep-warm-oil-trade-and-makeshift-refining-in-north-west-syria/
Here’s what @wammezz found using #OSINT and remote sensing https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2020/04/24/dying-to-keep-warm-oil-trade-and-makeshift-refining-in-north-west-syria/
Crude oil was imported from the oil-rich eastern regions of #Syria, as refineries there were bombed and abandoned. Soon, makeshift refineries popped up all over north-west Syria, as satellite imagery clearly shows the rapid increase
Workers and displaced people living near the makeshift refineries face numerous hazards, from exploding barrels, exposure to toxic waste and noxious fumes to airstrikes by Russian and Syrian Air force.
Thousands of these makeshift oil refineries have been set-up throughout north-west #Syria, in backyards, along roadsides and near IDP camps. The long-term health and environmental impacts of these practices for communities remain uncertain and worrisome
