Amid the chaos and violence, at least one thing is going right in Iraq. The restoration of the Mesopotamian marshes, drained by Saddam Hussein during the 1990s as vengeance against the Marsh Arabs, is proceeding apace.
On the 23 July, the United Nations Environment Programme announced that Japan would give $11 million in aid to improve water quality in the marshes, underlining the fact that there is once again water to worry about. 鈥淔orty per cent of the marshlands have been re-flooded by marsh dwellers or by the government,鈥� says Suzie Alwash of the Eden Again project, a group of expatriate Iraqis.
The main problem is the failure to repair sewage treatment plants upstream in Baghdad and elsewhere. As a result, the river water entering the marshes through holes made in Saddam鈥檚 dykes is laden with sewage. Marsh Arabs attempting to recreate their ancient homes among the reed beds are succumbing to water-borne diseases.
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The Japanese aid aims to install water treatment works in the marshes. But one biologist advising on marsh rehabilitation, Tom Crisman of the University of Florida, Gainesville, told 快猫短视频: 鈥淭hey should be trying to restore the reed beds instead to act as a natural water cleanser.鈥�