Mesopotamian Marsh

In between the first and second Gulf Wars, Saddam Hussein launched a massive project to drain the Mesopotamian Marshes, fed by the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. It was an area twice the size of the Everglades. There were about a quarter million people who lived in and near the marshes, making their living by fishing, raising water buffalo, cutting reeds, etc. They are tribal groups collectively known as Marsh Arabs, and for unknown reasons, Hussein decided to starve them out. He had massive dikes constructed to impede the flow of water into the marshes from the rivers, and also dug canals to drain the marshes themselves.

Imagine what could have been accomplished with all that time, effort, and money- schools, hospitals, clinics, food, roads, the list goes on. But I digress.

By the time international military personnel reached the area (near Basra) in 2003, the marshes no longer existed. The area had been converted to a desert. If you have trouble understanding how the Sahara became a desert, you can clearly see it in the before and after photos and video in Braving Iraq, produced for Nature on PBS. The program documents efforts over the past 10 years to restore the marshes and the culture and wildlife that once flourished here.

So far, a small portion of the marshes is back, but the Marsh Arabs are returning, the reeds are growing, fish and frogs are reproducing, and migrating birds are nesting once again. Nature Iraq is working to restore the natural flow of the rivers, the flood cycle, and maintain a balance between conservation and sustainable human activity. They envision a national park, with eco-tourism, that will be on the list of must-see places in the world. When you see the flocks of pelicans and teals rise out of the reeds, you want them to succeed at their mission.