Public Health and the Environment in Conflict Settings

Sounds like the typical international development concern, right? I just read an article about how one Forward Operating Base Commander was concerned with the trash that was being produced and set up a recycling program. With minimal effort, they cut down on waste by 30% in just a few weeks. They are continuing to push out to the rest of the base and to build more receptacles.

What does it matter? Well, it saves the US taxpayer money in the long run. Some bases have trash picked up, if this is the case, it is a way of minimizing the demands and costs of waste collection. More importantly perhaps is the impact on the bases who do not have waste removal services. The trash is simply burned and increasing numbers of soldiers are arriving in VA hospitals with respiratory infections, increased cancer rates, etc. Right now, medical experts are guessing that this is the result of burning the plastics and the carcinogens they hold. Everything that is drunk here is from water or Gatorade bottles or canned sodas, or my favorite, the little juice boxes that are almost enough for a 5 year old. I wonder how many 100ml banana flavored milk or pineapple juice a 200 pound soldier drinks in 125 degree heat? I think I would pretty easily drink about 20 a day. Crazy.

There really is great support for the soldiers, to the extent that the care that is provided erodes the individual’s sense of responsibility. Food is sometimes wasted, toiletries that are donated are left in the showers at some of the bases, people use stacks of napkins, and the trash is prolific. As the military is slowly becoming greener out of cost savings and maneuverability, I hope that this culture of neglect will be addressed - just as some of us in the Department of State are trying to cut down on waste there.

Having said this, a lot of the living quarters here are pretty basic. Just plywood walls, ceilings, floors with a frame holding it up. The kind of thing I think I could throw up with a few friends in an afternoon at most. Luckily for them, there is a unit to heat or cool the hooch, but right now it isn’t needed. These buildings are about the size of what you’d think of when you pictured an old one-room schoolhouse or country church. Turns out, they cost $50,000 to make-no insulation or anything, basically a tree-house on the ground. The gov’t has got to have more oversight, as noted in the SIGIR reports on Iraq and that would allow the chance to bid more contracts instead of having these huge overarching contracts.

Peace…