Drained, Polluted Iraqi Marshlands to Be Restored

NAIROBI, Kenya, July 23, 2004 (ENS) - The damaged Marshlands of Iraq, considered by some to be the location of the Biblical Garden of Eden, will be restored under a new $11 million program, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) said today from its headquarters in Nairobi.

Funded by the government of Japan, the wetlands project will use environmentally sound technologies to restore drinking water and sanitation systems to the Marsh Arabs.

In the late 20th century, the Marshlands were nearly dried up as a result of new dams on the Tigris and Euphrates river systems and massive drainage operations by the previous Iraqi regime.

Marshlands of Mesopotamia in 1971 before the dams and drainage (Photo by M.L. Bonsirven-Fontana courtesy UNESCO)

Toepfer said he is "delighted" that the Japanese government has offered to support "a new beginning for the Marshlands and the Marsh Arabs."

In 2001, UNEP released satellite images showing that 90 percent of these wetlands had been lost. The images alerted the world, but the destruction did not stop there.

Further studies, released in 2003, showed that an additional three percent or 325 square kilometres had disappeared. Experts feared that the entire wetlands, home to a 5,000 year old civilization who are the heirs of the Babylonians and Sumerians, could vanish by 2008.

When the former Iraqi regime was removed in mid-2003, Marshlands residents began opening floodgates and breaching embankments to bring water back into the wetlands.

Satellite images show that by April of this year, close to one-fifth of the marshes had been re-flooded, about 3,000 square kilometers.

The remaining Marshlands. The red line shows their extent in 2000. (Photo courtesy UNEP)

A recent United Nations inter-agency assessment and public health survey found that most of the Marsh Arabs are collecting water directly from the wetlands.

Many of the settlements in the area lack basic sanitation services with waste water draining into the street or nearest stream. As a result, water-borne diseases have become common.

Monique Barbut, director of UNEP's Division of Technology, Industry and Economics, which will be carrying out the project, said, "We will be putting together, in close cooperation with the relevant Iraqi ministries, a 10 person team of local and international experts. The project starts today and we hope to begin field studies and pilot water treatment projects towards the end of the year."

The $11 million project, approved in the framework of the UN Iraq Trust Fund, will initially target around a dozen settlements with small-scale water treatment systems some of which are likely to be solar powered.

"Nobody fully knows how much of the Marshlands can be recovered," said Barbut. "The future of the Iraqi Marshlands will be tied to the eventual development of a master plan covering regional cooperation with those countries upstream and downstream in the Tigris-Euphrates river basin."

This wetland has supported a civilization for thousands of years. (Photo courtesy Iraq Foundation)

The Iraq Marshlands are inhabited by rare and unique bird species like the sacred ibis and fish species such as the African darter, and they are a spawning ground for the rich fisheries of the Gulf.

People anywhere in the world will be able to follow the restoration progress through the Marshland Information Network, an Internet system that will allow those with an interest in the region to share their ideas and strategies.

Satellite images documenting re-flooding, restoration work and changes in vegetation will be posted on the site frequently. Some of the funds will support public awareness programs, locally and internationally.

The project will help train the Iraqi authorities, both at national government and local levels. It will train experts in wetland management and restoration, remote sensing analysis and community-based resource management.

Several other governments and nongovernmental organizations are involved in the Iraqi Marshlands. The UNEP project aims to strengthen the coordination of these various efforts to ensure maximum benefit for the people and wildlife there. It is envisaged that this coordinated approach will be applied to the future development of a wider Marshlands strategy in the region.

Toepfer says that the techniques developed in the Iraqi Marshlands will be of use for other wetlands restoration projects. "Half the world's wetlands have been lost in the past 100 years," he said. "I am sure that the lessons learnt during this project will provide important clues on how to resuscitate other lost and degraded wetlands elsewhere on the globe."