KUWAIT: Sara Akbar was the only female member of a team that joined efforts to extinguish oil wells set on fire during the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Composed of 30 Kuwaiti personnel, along with thousands of firemen from sisterly and friendly countries, the team set a great example for self-sacrifice, loyalty and patriotism, said Akbar, who is a petroleum engineer.
The Iraqi invaders set around 737 oil wells on fire before retreating from Kuwait in 1991, leaving behind one of the worst environmental disasters in recent memory. Kuwait incurred daily losses amounting to nearly $120 million as 1.5-2 billion barrels of Kuwaiti crude oil had been burnt during the Iraqi invasion.
The fire extinguishing operation was a heroic endeavor by people who had sacrificed themselves to protect Kuwait, said Akbar. Experts had estimated that it would take at least five years to get all oil fires under control, but the squad, to everyone's surprise, managed to accomplish the mission in a record time of just eight months, she said with pride.
Twenty-seven teams composed of more than 10,000 firemen from 10 countries had joined the operation, she said, pointing out that the mission had officially started on March 16, 1991. She estimated that Kuwait had spent approximately $1.5 billion on the efforts of extinguishing the fires.
Kuwait Oil Company prepared a plan to resume production and signed contracts with the purpose of eliminating the impacts of the environmental catastrophe created by the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, she said. They had focused their efforts on the rehabilitation of 18 assembly centers and the recovery and treatment of nearly 20 million barrels of crude oil assembled out of 240 petroleum seeps, she said.
Akbar regretted that the oil fires had created some 300 petroleum seeps with mixed coverage and depth based on terrain, covering roughly 50 km, with leakage of around 23 million barrels of oil. Akbar added that the country's refineries and storage, transport and shipping facilities had also been seriously damaged due to the oil fires. On Nov 6, 1991, in the presence of the late Amir Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, Kuwait announced that the last burning oil well had been put out, ending eight months of accomplishment that remain engraved in Kuwait's memory. - KUNA