Iraq's Marshland Still Not Safe
by Matthew Sparkes, London, UK on 04.11.07
Iraq's Mesopotamian marshes once covered more than 15,000 square kilometers, but Saddam Hussein drained them in the 90's. Only 10% of the area remained intact by 2000. After the fall of Baghdad, US scientists found that the marshes were re-flooding, but just how much the area will recover is unknown. It's already clear that there will not be enough water to restore the entire region, and that not all of the native species will return to their former numbers.
The flooding was largely due to local farmers blowing up dikes and dams after Hussein's regime ended, and by early 2004, nearly 20% of the drained marshes had been restored. Unfortunately this rapid and uncoordinated flooding has been leeching chemicals into the marshes, causing further damage.
Unfortunately, Iraq is currently in a state where conservation is not a top priority, and the region is suffering because of it, the same was true of the oil fires started by retreating soldiers. War is bad news for eveyone, human or otherwise. ::RedOrbit
Some other notes on the marsh issue and Saddam.
*Mosquitos in Iraq are a freakin' NIGHTMARE after the wet season. Don't know why the marshes were drained in the first place, but who knows, perhaps it was a human health/safety thing (ala malaria)?
*Saddam has been credited, however, with doing a lot of planting of trees, shrubs, etc, along the roadsides, which were actually quite attractive. Apparently, although I have no direct way to verify this, word on the street is that he was a bit of a green lover.
"perhaps it was a human health/safety thing (ala malaria)?"
If you drain the swamps, the public health on the whole gets worse worse. The only way to control malaria is to make certain people don't live in the marshes unless they have genetic resistance.
The more we drain swamps, spray DDT, the stronger the mosquitos get. Natural selection assures that when you put a natural population under stress, it gets meaner. A lion or elephant can become extinct, but if you think moquitos will EVER become extinct, you're smoking too much marsh grass.
Even an anti-environmentalist like yourself will concede that marshlands are needed to purify water, provide habitat for game birds, provide fish hatcheries essential to the food supply, and to prevent erosion, which is necessary for agriculture.
The draining of the marshlands, according to Human Rights Watch, was more of an attack on the Marsh Arabs and an attempt to consolidate power in the area than anything else. Check out the HRW report at http://www.hrw.org/backgrounder/mena/marsharabs1.htm