Syria's huge olive oil industry is leaving its mark on the environment. Waste products from olive oil processing mills which are not properly disposed of are causing soil and water pollution, and killing plant and animal life.
During the processing of olive oil, olives are crushed and mixed with water. The oil is then separated out from the dirty water and solid residue.
"The water used in the process and then discarded is often just pumped out onto surrounding land," environment expert Marwan Dimashki told IRIN.
"This waste water contains polythenols which provide the natural green and black colouring of olives. However, they are chemicals which, when spread in large quantities, change environmental conditions and cause a reduction in soil fertility."
Impact on human health
He said human health could be at risk. "Contaminated water becomes undrinkable. It goes brown and smelly and contains chemicals bad for human consumption, such as some of the polythenols."
Where processing plants are close to rivers, the waste water can run off into the rivers, harming aquatic life (with toxic chemicals or through compounds in the waste using up supplies of oxygen) and contaminating human drinking water.
If pomace - the solid residue left over from the processing of olive oil - is not properly dried out and disposed of, it too can seep into the soil, changing the acidity and nutrient make-up.
The impact on human health of consuming the chemicals in olive waste water is still unknown. Catechol, one of the chemicals in the waste water thought by some experts to be harmful, is not considered a threat by the World Health Organization (WHO).
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"Catechol is not considered by WHO in its guidelines for drinking-water quality and thus there is no proposed drinking-water recommended maximum limit," said Bruce Gordon, head of the drinking water safety and quality team at WHO.However, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) lists catechol as "possibly carcinogenic to humans".
The problem is not a small-scale one. Syria is the world’s fifth largest olive oil producer, contributing 4.6 percent of the world’s supply each year from its 920 mills.
The total waste water from Syria’s olive oil production amounts to 700,000 cubic metres a year, along with 280,000 tonnes of pomace.
Lack of awareness
The reasons for the contamination include dated technology and a lack of awareness by mill owners.
"The majority of the mills are family-run businesses which still use traditional presses rather than [modern] machinery," Dimashki said. "They do not have the equipment to clean the waste water and often cannot afford to buy it."
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