Fighting for Kuwait’s compensation

The United Nations Compensation Committee required an assessment of the environmental damage resulting from Iraq’s invasion and occupation of Kuwait in 1990. RSK formed part of a consortium tasked with providing the data and focused on the nature and extent of oil contamination in Kuwait’s marine and coastal environment.

RSK’s workforce responded rapidly to the challenge and set up a full-time team in Kuwait. David Watson from RSK’s International Projects Group explains the main objectives: “We developed a sampling programme to determine the ongoing impacts to the marine environment. This included sampling in benthic and intertidal sediments to understand the extent of oil contamination. We also compared the biological community data for diversity and abundance with pre-invasion data.”

RSK’s analysis and reports provided input for the most-appropriate remediation technologies and its ecology experts gave evidence at the International Court of Justice. With this information, the United Nations Compensation Committee was able to assess the compensation due to Kuwait.