Across the globe, from the oil saturated deserts of Kuwait to the bomb scarred farmlands of Ukraine and the devastated landscapes of Gaza, war leaves behind a toxic inheritance. While bunkers and battlefields mark the visible history of conflict, the invisible contamination of soil and groundwater can linger for generations. For communities within conflict, the land that sustained their ancestors is often poisoned, posing a multitude of risks to health and food security.
At OGA, we believe that language justice and environmental justice are deeply intertwined. From January to March of this year, in partnership with the University of Vermont´s Institute for Agroecology, we collaborated with a groundbreaking course on Bioremediation in Warzones. Our trainer was Leila Darwish, a bioremediation specialist, community organizer, permaculturalist, and author of Earth Repair: A Grassroots Guide to Healing Toxic and Damaged Landscapes. The course was designed to bridge the gap between scientific solutions and community action, ensuring that critical knowledge was not locked behind language barriers. To achieve this, OGA and Language for Justice sourced a team of around 15 volunteer professionals (among organizers and interpreters) working in French and Arabic, alongside English.
This article explores the science of bioremediation, the brutal reality of military pollution, and how grassroots education is empowering communities to heal their land.
The Silent Casualty of Modern Conflict
Modern warfare leaves more than craters. It can leave a toxic footprint. Recent research on soils affected by military actions in the Kharkiv region of Ukraine reveals significant contamination with heavy metals such as Cadmium (Cd), Lead (Pb), and Chromium (Cr). Similarly, studies on explosives contaminated sites show that chemical compounds like RDX and TNT, while essential for military operations, are toxic to both human biology and soil microbiology.
In Kuwait, the legacy of the 1990-1991 Gulf War remains stark. The retreating Iraqi forces ignited over 700 oil wells, creating massive oil lakes and contaminating millions of cubic meters of soil. For decades, these contaminants have prevented the natural regeneration of ecosystems and rendered farmland unusable.
The situation is not limited to past wars. In Palestine, decades of brutal occupation, infrastructure destruction, and restricted access to land and water have led to severe environmental stress. Studies and UN assessments highlight soil degradation, water contamination, and collapse of wastewater systems, particularly in Gaza, where repeated escalations have compounded environmental damage and public health risks.
The problem is scale. Conventional remediation, such as digging up and dumping contaminated soil in landfills or treating it chemically or thermally, is astronomically expensive. It requires heavy machinery, industrial infrastructure, and immense energy. This is where bioremediation offers a radical alternative.
What is Bioremediation?
Bioremediation is the science and art of working with living organisms to extract, break down, or immobilize various contaminants and accelerate the healing of damaged land. Leila Darwish approaches this practice as a matter of justice. Her organizing has centered on environmental justice issues, particularly with communities struggling with either the threat of, or the enduring legacy of, toxic contamination of their land and drinking water. Her focus on community bioremediation stems from a deep commitment to justice and the passionate desire to empower people by providing them with simple, practical, and accessible tools for regenerative earth repair.
Leila defines the practice through three primary biological pathways:
1. Microbial Remediation: Using microorganisms to break down and/or bind contaminants, as well as restore healthy beneficial biology to the soil.
2. Phytoremediation: Working with plants to either extract heavy metals from soil and water, or to support the breakdown of chemicals in the soil.
3. Mycoremediation: Working with fungi to break down or bind contaminants in soil and water.
These methods are low tech, low cost, can be adapted to different bioregions, and can be helpful tools for local communities to implement when dealing with contamination.
Lessons from the Field: Lebanon, DRC, Palestine, and Beyond
Bioremediation is not a theoretical concept but an active necessity in current warzones and regions affected by protracted conflict and increasing militarization. In Lebanon, industrial and military contamination has impacted agricultural lands. In the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Republic of Congo, the legacy of resource extraction and armed conflict has left soils burdened with heavy metals. In Palestine, communities face ongoing challenges with land access and contamination that threatens food and water security. These are precisely the contexts where grassroots bioremediation can offer a viable path forward.
In Ukraine, the destruction of the Kakhovka Dam and the intense shelling of agricultural regions have left soils contaminated with fuel residues, explosives, and heavy metals. Scientists are currently testing biological products to restore soil fertility.
In Kuwait, large-scale projects like the NKETR (Northern Kuwait Environmental Remediation Project) are utilizing bioremediation to clean up oil contamination. By adding specific bacterial strains and organic compounds to the soil, engineers are successfully breaking down Total Petroleum Hydrocarbons (TPH) even under extreme desert conditions.
However, industrial scale projects are expensive. What happens when a community does not have access to a multi million dollar contract? This is where the philosophy of Leila Darwish becomes vital.
The Grassroots Approach: Knowledge as Resistance
The course we collaborated in emphasized that the most powerful tool in a crisis is accessible knowledge. A key takeaway was the distinction between reciprocity and immediate results. Remediation is a relationship between people and their land. It requires patience, creativity, and hard work.
By integrating French and Arabic interpreters into the learning process, OGA and Language for Justiceensured that the course was not limited to English speakers. For those living in conflict zones in SWANA (Southwest Asia and North Africa), or Francophone regions, technical jargon in English is a barrier.With around 15 professionals facilitating the sessions, participants could focus on healing their land, not struggling with translation.
Over the duration of the course, 45 participants from various backgrounds joined us. Thanks to the generous support of George McAllister and UVM IFA (University of Vermont Institute for Agroecology), this knowledge was offered completely free to all participants. This support made it possible to bring together a diverse cohort of learners, including farmers, permaculturalists, community organizers, and environmental practitioners working on the frontlines of war, food security, land contamination, and environmental justice.
Bridging Science and Language
Why does OGA care about soil science? Because the language used to describe environmental disasters often alienates the people suffering from them. Technical jargon can become a barrier, locking local communities out of the decision making process.
Our collaboration aimed to break down those walls. By training translators, interpreters and community leaders in the vocabulary of bioremediation, we are ensuring that a farmer in Palestine, a gardener in Lebanon, or a community organizer in the DRC can access the information needed to heal their land.
Bioremediation is not a silver bullet. It cannot erase the violence of war overnight. But it offers a healing path forward, and a variety of community accessible tools and strategies in order to support the transformation of conflict zones into regenerative landscapes once more.
We thank Leila Darwish, for sharing her profound insights as our trainer; Praxis Course Coordinator George McAllister,for her patience and unwavering presence; UVM IFA for their essential support; the team of volunteer interpretersand organizers from Language for Justice, who made this knowledge accessible to all 45 participants, and everyone who might come across it through recordings.
The land heals itself. We merely have to learn how to ask it to begin.
