Ma'ameer ( ar, المعامير) is a village in

Bahrain Bahrain ( ; ; ar, البحرين, al-Bahrayn, locally ), officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, ' is an island country in Western Asia. It is situated on the Persian Gulf, and comprises a small archipelago made up of 50 natural islands and an ...

. Nationally, the village is known for its Industrial Area, which consists of the

Bahrain Petroleum Company The Bahrain Petroleum Company (BAPCO) is an integrated national oil company of Bahrain. History The BAPCO was established in 1929 in Canada by Standard Oil Company of California for oil exploration activities in Bahrain. It took over Bahra ...

(BAPCO) refinery and a large number of factories, production units such as Awal Ready-mixed Concrete (ARMCON), Eastern Asphalt, Gulf Petrochemical Industrial Corp (GPIC),

Aluminium Bahrain Aluminium Bahrain B.S.C. (Alba) is the first aluminium smelter in the Middle East which started its commercial operations in 1971. 84% of Alba's employees are Bahraini nationals and the company has introduced numerous capacity building initia ...

and Al Zamil Aluminium. Villagers have long complained of health problems as a result of

pollution Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into the natural environment that cause adverse change. Pollution can take the form of any substance (solid, liquid, or gas) or energy (such as radioactivity, heat, sound, or light). Pollutants, the ...

from the Industrial Area.

History

Ma'ameer during the 2011-2012 uprising

Since the start of the

2011-2012 Bahraini uprising The 2011 Bahraini uprising was a series of anti-government protests in Bahrain led by the Shia-dominant and some Sunni minority Bahraini opposition from 2011 until 2014. The protests were inspired by the unrest of the 2011 Arab Spring and prot ...

, unrest became more common in villages containing large Shia population, with Ma'ameer being one of those villages. Clashes between security forces and anti-government rioters and vandals continued throughout the uprising with riot police often being attacked by

Molotov cocktails A Molotov cocktail (among several other names – ''see other names'') is a hand thrown incendiary weapon constructed from a frangible container filled with flammable substances equipped with a fuse (typically a glass bottle filled with flammab ...

and blunt weapons. At least two people from the village died during the uprising.

Pollution

Villagers in Ma'ameer have long complained of

air The atmosphere of Earth is the layer of gases, known collectively as air, retained by Earth's gravity that surrounds the planet and forms its planetary atmosphere. The atmosphere of Earth protects life on Earth by creating pressure allowing f ...

and

sea pollution Marine pollution occurs when substances used or spread by humans, such as industrial waste, industrial, agricultural pollution, agricultural and municipal solid waste, residential waste, particle (ecology), particles, noise, excess carbon dioxid ...

as a result of the factories present in the Industrial Area. Villagers allege that fumes, smoke and gases with strong smells, from the factories, have led to a spike in the number of long-term illnesses emerging in the village, and had also led to the death of several people in the village over the past years. They also allege that the discharge of waste from

ALBA ''Alba'' ( , ) is the Scottish Gaelic name for Scotland. It is also, in English language historiography, used to refer to the polity of Picts and Scottish people, Scots united in the ninth century as the Kingdom of Alba, until it developed i ...

and GPIC factories into the sea, off the village's coast, has led to the death of

aquatic life An aquatic ecosystem is an ecosystem formed by surrounding a body of water, in contrast to land-based terrestrial ecosystems. Aquatic ecosystems contain communities of organisms that are dependent on each other and on their environment. The tw ...

in the sea. Villagers have formed the Ma'ameer Environmentalist Committee (MEC) which actively campaigns, both in Bahrain and abroad, for greater pollution controls in the village and the country. The MEC regularly calls upon the Commission for the Protection of Marine Resources, Environment and Wildlife, which is responsible for the environment in the country, to take action over the pollution. In 2006, Bahrain's lower house of parliament ruled that BAPCO had to pay compensation to villagers who had skin allergy, cancer,

miscarriages Miscarriage, also known in medical terms as a spontaneous abortion and pregnancy loss, is the death of an embryo or fetus before it is able to survive independently. Miscarriage before 6 weeks of gestation is defined by ESHRE as biochemical lo ...

or other environment-related diseases. Parliament also ordered BAPCO to finance awareness campaigns and studies in the village.

References

External links

Ma'ameer village site
Populated places in Bahrain {{Bahrain-geo-stub

History

Ma'ameer during the 2011-2012 uprising

Pollution

See also

References

External links