Iraqi Marshlands Reflooded to 40 Percent of Former Area

TOKYO, Japan, August 23, 2005 (ENS) - The Iraqi Marshlands, one of the world’s largest wetland ecosystems, is on its way back from the brink of obliteration. Nearly destroyed under the regime of Saddam Hussein, there has been a rapid increase in water and vegetation cover over the last two years, new satellite images and analysis from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) show.

The Marshlands have now recovered almost 40 percent of their extent prior to 1970, and UNEP scientists believe the findings are a positive signal that the Iraqi marshlands are on the road to ecological health.

The new data on the extent of recovery of the marshes was announced today at an international meeting on the UNEP marshlands project in Tokyo, which included representatives of the governments of Iraq and Japan as well as senior officials from the UN, scientists, and local community leaders from the marshlands.

The findings come from the newly launched Iraqi Marshlands Observation System (IMOS), the latest component of UNEP’s multi-million dollar marshlands project.

The project, launched a year ago with funding from the government of Japan, is helping Iraq restore the environment and provide clean drinking water for up to 100,000 people living in or near the Marshlands.

Klaus Toepfer, UNEP executive director, said, “The near total destruction of the Iraqi marshlands under the regime of Saddam Hussein was a major ecological and human disaster, robbing the Marsh Arabs of a centuries-old culture and way of life as well as food in the form of fish and that most crucial of natural resources, drinking water."

Water is returning to the Iraqi Marshlands. (Photo by Jassim Al-Asadi courtesy Center for the Restoration of Iraqi Marshlands, Ministry of Water Resources)

Totalling almost 9,000 square kilometers (3,474 square miles) of permanent wetlands, the Iraqi marshlands had dwindled to just 760 square kilometers (293 square miles) in 2002.

Experts feared that the entire wetlands, home to a 5,000 year old civilization descended from the Babylonians and Sumerians, could disappear entirely by 2008.

With the collapse of the former Iraqi regime, local residents began opening floodgates and breaching embankments to bring water back into the marshlands.

As of August 2005, IMOS shows the marshes covering almost 3,500 square kilometers (1,351 square miles), approximately 37 percent of the former 1970s extent.

In the spring, the figure was nearer to 50 percent, shrinking with the high summer evaporation rates. The different figures reflect the strong seasonal fluctuation in the marshlands ecosystem with extent of water cover reaching a maximum in March, following winter rains and spring snow melt in the headwaters of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.

“While the re-flooding bodes well for the Iraqi marshes their recovery will take many years," Toepfer said. "We must continue to monitor the situation carefully and make the necessary long term investment in marshlands management.”

Marsh dwellings at North Hamar (Photo by Jassim Al-Asadi courtesy Center for the Restoration of Iraqi Marshlands, Ministry of Water Resources)

The UNEP chief views the marsh restoration as a positive step towards achieving the UN Millennium Development Goals agreed to by 191 nations. Progress toward the goals will be assessed at UN Headquarters in September.

Toepfer said, "I hope the lessons learnt to date in restoring this vital ecosystem and its economically important natural services can help in the restoration of other damaged and degraded ecosystems elsewhere and in doing so assist in meeting the Millennium Development Goals whose status will be reviewed by heads of state in New York in mid-September."

Working in collaboration with the government of Iraq and local people, the UNEP marshlands project is carrying out a wide range of activities.

At six pilot project sites in Thi-Qar, Basrah, and Missan governorates, different environmentally sound technologies are being tested to see how they perform in bringing drinking water, sanitation systems and wetland management skills to local people and communities.

Considered suitable from a technical and social perspective, the pilot sites were selected by Iraqi ministries and the Marsh Arab Forum, in consultation with UNEP.

Inhabitant of the Mesopotamian Marshlands (Photo by Azzam Alwash courtesy Iraq Foundation)

Online, a Marshland Information Network is up and running that allows people with an interest in the region share their ideas and strategies.

An Arabic version of UNEP’s Environmentally Sound Technology Information System, which serves as the basis for Marshland Information Network, is operational in Iraq and in use by the Environment Ministry.

The project is helping to train the Iraqi authorities, both at national government and local levels. About 250 Iraqis have been trained in wetland management and restoration, remote sensing and community resource management.

The UNEP project, “Support for Environmental Management of the Iraqi Marshlands,” is implemented through UNEP's Division of Technology, Industry and Economics office in Japan, the International Environmental Technology Centre.

The IMOS component has been designed and implemented by UNEP's Post Conflict Assessment Unit in collaboration with the Division of Early Warning and Assessment/GRID-Europe.