快猫短视频

THE Marsh Arabs of Iraq have given up waiting for outsiders to restore their wetlands. Local people are taking matters into their own hands by breaching dykes and shutting down pumping stations in a bid to restore the marshes drained by Saddam Hussein鈥檚 regime. But some experts worry that their actions could hamper the region鈥檚 recovery.

Five months ago, 快猫短视频 reported that an international team of wetland experts, backed by the US State Department, planned to gradually re-flood the wetlands (26 April, p 14). But reports from inside Iraq reveal this plan is increasingly irrelevant.

Even as Saddam鈥檚 regime fell local people began to breach the dams with farm tools. 快猫短视频 has learned that between 200 and 300 square kilometres of land has now been inundated as people start returning to their ancient way of life.

At one time, the marshes covered between 15,000 and 20,000 square kilometres in what the UN Environment Programme described as a 鈥渂iodiversity centre of global importance鈥�. Thought by Bible scholars to be the location of the Garden of Eden and the Flood, the marshes surrounding the confluence of the Euphrates and Tigris supported the Madan, or Marsh Arabs, for 5000 years. But a combination of 32 dam projects upstream and the deliberate draining of the land by Saddam鈥檚 regime reduced the marshes to 5 per cent of their previous extent.

鈥淭he people want their land back,鈥� says Azzam Alwash, an Iraqi-American water engineer exiled to California. Alwash and his wife Suzie, a geologist at El Camino College in Torrance, California, joined forces with a charity set up by Iraqi expatriates, the Iraq Foundation, to find ways to return the marshes to their former glory. They recruited engineers, ecologists, hydrologists and soil chemists, and in April published a report suggesting efforts should be concentrated first on the most intact Hawizah marsh, which borders Iran.

It also recommended a three-month monitoring period to test the soil for chemicals such as pesticides and heavy metals before letting in the water. The more damaged Central and Hammar marshes would take much longer to restore, the report predicted. But it is parts of these marshes that have already been re-flooded, says Alwash, who has returned to Iraq to help with the marshs鈥� restoration.

鈥淭he science part of my brain says this is not right,鈥� says Suzie Alwash, 鈥渂ut my heart says, 鈥榬ight on, go for it guys.'鈥� Others agree that it is difficult to criticise the actions of the local people, whose livelihoods are at stake. 鈥淚t was a spontaneous reaction to what they have suffered,鈥� says Hassan Janabi, the water engineer leading efforts by the Iraqi Ministry of Irrigation to restore the marshes.

One region recovering well is Hawr Al-Awdah in the north-west of the Central marsh. After the war, local people persuaded staff manning the pumping station that drained the marsh to shut it down. This has resulted in around 50 square kilometres being re-flooded. 鈥淭he vegetation recovery was so beautiful and so fast I could not believe my eyes,鈥� Janabi says.

But other regions are not faring as well. Several dyke breaches have allowed water from the Euphrates to flood the Kurmet Bani Saeed basin, part of Hammar marsh. Alwash is concerned that because there is no outlet for the water, it is becoming increasingly saline. Already salt levels have risen to around 6 parts per thousand (ppt), more than 10 times the salt content of fresh water.

He believes this is hampering the recovery of vegetation such as the common reed (Phragmites australis) which can tolerate brackish water but does worse as salinity increases. The reed is the dominant plant in the ecosystem, providing shelter for fish and birds. The Marsh Arabs use it as a material for building, weaving and as fodder for water buffalo.

Another marsh called Al-Sanuf, north-east of Al-Amarah, is in even worse shape. With salt levels of 17 ppt, it is around half as saline as seawater. Virtually nothing grows here except a few small plants that are highly tolerant of saltwater.

Hassan Partow, head of the UN Environment Programme鈥檚 efforts to restore the marshes, says an unplanned effort could impede long-term recovery. 鈥淚f it is done in an uncoordinated way it may not lead to the most judicious use of water resources.鈥� He also says that flooding areas contaminated with heavy metals such as lead and mercury may create problems for people drinking the water and for wildlife. What鈥檚 more, many dykes were mined by Saddam鈥檚 regime to discourage people from tampering with them.

Controlling the restoration effort from Baghdad will be impossible, so working with local people is crucial, Janabi says.

鈥淚t is for us to catch up rather than lead the entire process.鈥� The charity Assisting Marsh Arabs and Refugees (AMAR) estimates that 85,000 people are living in the former marsh areas with little to support themselves. Another 200,000 fled to neighbouring Iran during Saddam鈥檚 regime.

The news isn鈥檛 all bad. Janabi says that with their knowledge of managing the marshes, the locals have, by and large, chosen breach sites that would have been picked by a qualified water engineer.

And Peter Reiss of Development Alternatives Incorporated, a consultancy in Bethesda, Maryland, says the overall picture is encouraging. In June, he led a study funded by the international development agency USAID to collect data on the re-flooded areas, which will be published in a few weeks. Reiss is keen that Iraqis be given the technical expertise to help themselves. 鈥淚raq was shut off from scientific advances for 20 years,鈥� he says. To this end, USAID is funding the training of two Iraqi water engineers in California.

Partow says the next six months will be critical. The rivers will be at their highest in March following the rains and if used well, this water could flush out salty or contaminated marshes and flood new areas. But his team was recently pulled out of the country in the wake of the bomb attack on the UN鈥檚 headquarters in Baghdad in August. With lawlessness and instability blighting Iraq鈥檚 recovery, the chances of a comprehensive and coordinated plan being implemented in time seem slim.

The scale of the task is huge, says Curtis Richardson at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, a member of Reiss鈥� team. He says that upstream dams have reduced the water flow so much that just 15 to 20 per cent of the lost marshes can be restored.

Nevertheless, the international community has an obligation to ensure the marshes recover quickly, says Baroness Emma Nicholson, AMAR鈥檚 chair. It failed to prevent the old regime from destroying a region which was a 鈥渢hriving and productive agricultural and fishing centre鈥�. Food production in the marshes will give another dimension to Iraq鈥檚 economy, she says, complementing its income from oil. Their recovery will also send out a powerful political message, 鈥渢hat Iraq is really in business鈥�.