Garbage clogs the banks of Iraq’s Tigris River in Baghdad but an army of young volunteers is cleaning it, a rare environmental project in the war-battered country. With boots and gloves, they pick up soggy trash, water bottles, aluminium cans, and muddy styrofoam boxes, part of a green activist campaign called the Cleanup Ambassadors. “This is the first time this area has been cleaned since 2003,” shouts a passer-by about the years of conflict since a US-led invasion toppled dictator Saddam Hussein.

Karim, A. (2022, April 11). Iraqis clean up river as first green projects take root. Manila Standard, p. B3.