fms
02-19-2005, 07:39 PM
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6998715/
Iraq’s Garden of Eden returns to life
After Saddam, experts restore devastated marshes
In a photo from May 2003, a Marsh Arab, family walks across dry land that used to a marsh in Qurnah. Parts of the marsh are slowly recovering after years of environmental degradation.
The Associated Press
Updated: 3:15 p.m. ET Feb. 19, 2005WASHINGTON - Water and new life are returning to an ancient Iraqi marsh considered by many as the cradle of Western civilization.
Saddam Hussein drained the area after the 1991 Gulf War to retaliate against the people who had lived there for thousands of years. International and Iraqi experts are now restoring it.
For more than 5,000 years, the Marsh Arab culture thrived in the 8,000 square miles of wetlands fed by the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. The marshes boasted hundreds of species of birds and fish, and periodic flooding created fertile farm lands.
Some scholars believe the flooded, flat plain was an important part of the development of an agriculture-based culture that helped raise civilization to new heights. The vast marsh was identified by some biblical scholars as the site of the fabled Garden of Eden.
But after the Gulf War, Saddam ordered that the marsh be drained. His goal was to punish the Marsh Arabs who opposed his rule.
'Ecological and human disaster'
For eight years, virtually all of Iraq’s earth-moving machinery was used in a massive project of dam building to drain the marsh and uproot the 500,000 people who lived there or on its edges.
The result, said Curtis Richardson of Duke University, was “an ecological and human disaster.”
Richardson, head of an international team studying and helping to restore marsh, said Saturday that by rerouting waters from the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, Saddam cut the flow to a vast area of the marsh.
As it dried up, the marsh area turned into a desert. Fine sediments once underwater dried and were lifted aloft by winds, creating immense dust storms.
“Some cities had to plow the dust like snow” to keep the streets clear, Richardson said.
The marsh was an important home and migratory stop for hundreds of bird species. Richardson said when he first visited there, the number of bird species present was “just a handful.”
Life after Saddam
After Saddam was ousted as president in the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, Iraqis began breaching dams and allowing water to flow back into the marsh. About 20 percent of the original marsh was reflooded by last March and thousands of birds have returned. So, too, have thousands of displaced people.
But it is unlikely that the marsh will ever be as it was, Richardson said at news conference at the national meeting of American Association for the Advancement of Science,
“The people there are not expecting a full restoration,” he said.
Water is being diverted upstream by Turkey. Iran is building a dam to cut flow to a part of the marsh on its border with Iraq.
Richardson said that perhaps 30 percent of a marsh once two times the size of the Florida Everglades will become a healthy system.
When the marsh dried, it caused the accumulation of salts, and many areas are poisoned by high salinity, particularly from toxic levels of the mineral selenium.
There is also concern about the aquatic food chain. Richardson said some native species used for food by the Marsh Arabs have almost disappeared. The most common species is the catfish, a predator that the Marsh Arabs will not eat, he said.
Optimism amid the gloom
Despite the problems, Richardson said he is optimistic about the marsh’s future.
“I think the main outcome of this early research is to show that the marshes have much more resiliency than we thought and that the potential for them to be restored is much higher,” he said.
Richardson said the quality of water flowing into the marsh is higher than expected and the response of wildlife has been swift and positive. Plant life is returning to many areas and some people are resuming a way of life that has endured for thousands of years, he said.
Iraq’s Garden of Eden returns to life
After Saddam, experts restore devastated marshes
In a photo from May 2003, a Marsh Arab, family walks across dry land that used to a marsh in Qurnah. Parts of the marsh are slowly recovering after years of environmental degradation.
The Associated Press
Updated: 3:15 p.m. ET Feb. 19, 2005WASHINGTON - Water and new life are returning to an ancient Iraqi marsh considered by many as the cradle of Western civilization.
Saddam Hussein drained the area after the 1991 Gulf War to retaliate against the people who had lived there for thousands of years. International and Iraqi experts are now restoring it.
For more than 5,000 years, the Marsh Arab culture thrived in the 8,000 square miles of wetlands fed by the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. The marshes boasted hundreds of species of birds and fish, and periodic flooding created fertile farm lands.
Some scholars believe the flooded, flat plain was an important part of the development of an agriculture-based culture that helped raise civilization to new heights. The vast marsh was identified by some biblical scholars as the site of the fabled Garden of Eden.
But after the Gulf War, Saddam ordered that the marsh be drained. His goal was to punish the Marsh Arabs who opposed his rule.
'Ecological and human disaster'
For eight years, virtually all of Iraq’s earth-moving machinery was used in a massive project of dam building to drain the marsh and uproot the 500,000 people who lived there or on its edges.
The result, said Curtis Richardson of Duke University, was “an ecological and human disaster.”
Richardson, head of an international team studying and helping to restore marsh, said Saturday that by rerouting waters from the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, Saddam cut the flow to a vast area of the marsh.
As it dried up, the marsh area turned into a desert. Fine sediments once underwater dried and were lifted aloft by winds, creating immense dust storms.
“Some cities had to plow the dust like snow” to keep the streets clear, Richardson said.
The marsh was an important home and migratory stop for hundreds of bird species. Richardson said when he first visited there, the number of bird species present was “just a handful.”
Life after Saddam
After Saddam was ousted as president in the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, Iraqis began breaching dams and allowing water to flow back into the marsh. About 20 percent of the original marsh was reflooded by last March and thousands of birds have returned. So, too, have thousands of displaced people.
But it is unlikely that the marsh will ever be as it was, Richardson said at news conference at the national meeting of American Association for the Advancement of Science,
“The people there are not expecting a full restoration,” he said.
Water is being diverted upstream by Turkey. Iran is building a dam to cut flow to a part of the marsh on its border with Iraq.
Richardson said that perhaps 30 percent of a marsh once two times the size of the Florida Everglades will become a healthy system.
When the marsh dried, it caused the accumulation of salts, and many areas are poisoned by high salinity, particularly from toxic levels of the mineral selenium.
There is also concern about the aquatic food chain. Richardson said some native species used for food by the Marsh Arabs have almost disappeared. The most common species is the catfish, a predator that the Marsh Arabs will not eat, he said.
Optimism amid the gloom
Despite the problems, Richardson said he is optimistic about the marsh’s future.
“I think the main outcome of this early research is to show that the marshes have much more resiliency than we thought and that the potential for them to be restored is much higher,” he said.
Richardson said the quality of water flowing into the marsh is higher than expected and the response of wildlife has been swift and positive. Plant life is returning to many areas and some people are resuming a way of life that has endured for thousands of years, he said.