29 April -05 May 2013 - orsam

Iraq's Marshlands Bloom Again, Restoring Traditional Way Of Life
When Saddam Hussein's regime collapsed, it appeared Iraq's once-abundant marshlands had been
destroyed forever.
The former president had transformed the largest wetland ecosystem in southwest Asia into desert in
retaliation for a Shi'a uprising in the early 1990s.
As a result, a 20,000-square-kilometer sanctuary for fish, migratory birds, and water buffalo was
feared lost, along with the traditional way of life carried out for centuries by the inhabitants of the
marshes, located between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers in southern Iraq.
By the time Hussein was toppled in 2003, some 90 percent of Iraq's marshland had been drained.
Leading experts provided a dire assessment, predicting that the marshes could never be restored.
But local residents soon tore breaches in the earth dykes Hussein had constructed, allowing water
from the north to flow into the area again.
Within six months, the reed forests began to return. Broader efforts to restore and monitor the
marshes followed. As a result, according to the UN, more than 40 percent of southern Iraq's marshes
have been regenerated.
The return of wildlife highlights the positives, but questions remain about whether the lives of the
marshland people can be fully restored.
'Accustomed To The City'
Hasan Ali was raised as a fisherman in Chibayish, where he lived with his parents in a traditional
arched house made from marsh reeds, where they kept alive a centuries-old way of life.
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