Iraq’s vast marshes, reborn after Saddam, are in peril again - Oct.26, 2017

Iraq’s vast marshes, reborn after Saddam, are in peril
again- Oct 26 2017
vinhbinh2010Iraq’s vast marshes, reborn after Saddam, are in peril again
October 29, 2017
Iraq’s vast marshes, reborn after Saddam, are in peril again- Oct
26 2017
1
Text from the AP news story,
Iraq’s vast marshes, reborn after
Saddam, are in peril again, by
Susannah George and Sam
McNeil.
Photos by Nabil al-Jurani and
Susannah George
NEWS STORY

In the southern marshlands of Iraq, Firas Fadl steers his boat through
tunnels of towering reeds, past floating villages and half-submerged
water buffaloes in a unique region that seems a world apart from the
rest of the arid Middle East.
GALLERY PHOTOS
October 29, 2017
26 2017
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In this Monday, Sept. 11, 2017 photo, water buffalo wade in the Chabaish marsh in Nasiriyah, about 200 miles
(320 kilometers) southeast of Baghdad, Iraq. Iraq’s southern marshes, a lush remnant of the cradle of
civilization, were reborn after the 2003 fall of Saddam Hussein when residents dismantled dams he had built a
decade earlier to drain the area in order to root out Shiite rebels. (AP Photo/Nabil al-Jurani)
The marshes, a lush remnant of the
cradle of civilization , were reborn after
the 2003 fall of Saddam Hussein when
residents dismantled dams he had built
a decade earlier to drain the area in
order root out Shiite rebels. But now
the largest wetlands in the Middle East
are imperiled again, by government
mismanagement and new upstream
projects.
Fadl, at 26, is too young to remember
the death and rebirth of the marshes,
but he has seen their steady decline in
recent years as he has struggled to
make a living by fishing the brackish
waters. Upstream electrical dams and
irrigation projects have reduced the
flow of freshwater, allowing saltwater
from the Persian Gulf to seep in.
GALLERY PHOTOS
October 29, 2017
26 2017
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In this Monday, Sept. 11, 2017 photo, water buffalo and ducks gather in an island paddock
during the sunset in the Chabaish marsh in Nasiriyah, about 200 miles (320 kilometers)
southeast of Baghdad, Iraq. (AP Photo/Nabil al-Jurani)
“The situation is good, it’s just the
water is bad,” he said. “Ever since
2012, the water hasn’t been
fresh.”
Farming and sewage runoff have
depleted fishing stocks, forcing
some fishermen to resort to using
car batteries and chemicals. The
flares of nearby oil wells light up
the night sky, but the sweltering,
humid region remains mired in
poverty.
Facing a lack of employment
options, hundreds of young men
from the area took up arms in the
fight against the Islamic State
group, joining state-sanctioned
Shiite militias. Posters honoring
the fallen crowd traffic circles
along the roads leading to the
wetlands and line the walls inside
a monument honoring those
killed by Saddam a generation
earlier.
GALLERY PHOTOS
October 29, 2017
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Step back in time in this #360Video of
Iraq's marshes, a lush remnant of the
cradle of civilization, perhaps the fabled
Garden of Eden, once crushed by Sadam
Hussein, and now struggling to recover
from war, dams and insecurity. By Sam
McNeil and Susannah George
The overwhelmingly Shiite
region rose up against
Saddam’s Sunni-dominated
government in 1991 after his
crushing defeat in the Gulf
War, and the rebels took cover
in the marshes as they battled
his forces. The government
responded by deliberately
draining 20,000 square
kilometers (7,700 square miles)
of wetlands, turning the area
to desert and displacing half a
million people.
Andrew Whitley, a former
Human Rights Watch
researcher who interviewed
survivors at the time,
described the draining of the
marshes as a “large-scale
crime against humanity.”
October 29, 2017
26 2017
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Click VIDEO : IRAQ Marshes

In this Monday, Sept. 11, 2017 photo, a fisherman casts his net into the Chabaish marsh in
Nasiriyah, about 200 miles (320 kilometers) southeast of Baghdad, Iraq. Iraq’s southern
marshes, a lush remnant of the cradle of civilization, were reborn after the 2003 fall of
Saddam Hussein when residents dismantled dams he had built a decade earlier to drain the
area in order to root out Shiite rebels. (AP Photo/Nabil al-Jurani)
Iraqis who lived through that era speak of a paradise
lost.
“The marshes were a state outside of Saddam’s
control. The resources were a great boon,” recalls
Fadel Duwaish, 84, who was displaced in the 1990s
and only returned in 2003. “The marshes contained a
wealth of fish, the wealth of raising water buffalo.
You could turn the reeds into paper. All of the marsh
was a treasure.”
GALLERY PHOTOS
October 29, 2017
26 2017
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In this Monday, Sept. 11, 2017 photo, a water buffalo is taken to an island paddock in the Chabaish marsh in
Nasiriyah, about 200 miles (320 kilometers) southeast of Baghdad, Iraq. Iraq’s southern marshes, a lush remnant
of the cradle of civilization, were reborn after the 2003 fall of Saddam Hussein when residents dismantled dams
he had built a decade earlier to drain the area in order to root out Shiite rebels. But now the largest wetlands in
the Middle East are imperiled again, by government mismanagement and new upstream projects.(AP
Photo/Nabil al-Jurani)
After the 2003 U.S.-led invasion toppled
Saddam, residents dismantled the local
dams, allowing the waters to return, and
with them the plants and animals on
which the community relied. The
revitalization of the wetland was hailed as
a rare success story in a country beset by
conflict. But still, today’s marshlands are
only around 14 percent of what they were
in the 1970s.
Development along the Euphrates and
Tigris rivers, particularly the construction
of so-called mega dams under Turkey’s
Southeast Anatolia Project, have caused a
40-45 percent reduction in downstream
flow in the Euphrates alone, according to a
2015 report from Chatham house, a
London-based think tank. The dams also
block silt, depriving the rare ecosystem of
life-giving nutrients, according to a United
Nations report.
GALLERY PHOTOS
October 29, 2017
26 2017
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In this Sept. 10, 2017 photo,
fishermen gather in the
morning at an ad hoc market
along a main canal in the
marsh of Chabaish, Iraq.
From here merchants buy
fish to transport and sell to
markets in the nearby cities
of Nassariyah and Najaf in
Iraq’s south. (AP
Photo/Susannah George)
The marshes were declared a UNESCO World
Heritage Site in 2016, and there has been
talk of exploiting their tourism potential.
Southern Iraq has largely been spared the
violence that has gripped other parts of the
country, and the marshes were always
hundreds of miles (kilometers) away from
the front lines in the war against the Islamic
State group.
But the weak central government has long
neglected the region, and residents complain
about a lack of electricity and other basic
services. The 6,000 people who live in the
marshes dwell in thatch huts and barns,
relying on fishing and the raising of water
buffaloes. Wooden boats ply channels
braided through a forest of reeds.
GALLERY PHOTOS
October 29, 2017
26 2017
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In this Sept. 11, 2017 photo, a fisherman paddles through Iraq’s southern marshes at dawn in Chabaish, Iraq. The
wetlands are the largest in the Middle East and after surviving bombings and draining at the hands of former leader
Saddam Hussein, the fragile ecosystem is imperiled again, by government mismanagement and new upstream projects.
(AP Photo/Susannah George)
Migratory birds like eagles, cormorants
and pelicans still visit the marshes on
their seasonal journeys. Richard Porter,
a longtime researcher of the marshes
and adviser to Birdlife International,
said the loss of the wetlands would be
a “big blow” to several species.
The marsh’s residents brought the
wetlands back from the brink after
2003, said Jassim al-Asadi, the
managing director of Nature Iraq and a
leading advocate for the area. Now, he
says the government needs to finish
what they started.
GALLERY PHOTOS
October 29, 2017
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In this Sept. 11, 2017 photo, a fisherwoman prepares to lay out her netting beside a bank of reeds in the
marsh of Chabaish, Iraq. The majority of the marsh’s roughly 6,000 inhabitants subsist on fishing and
raising water buffalo, but as water quality continues to drop, yields have diminished and increasingly
residents are living in poverty. (AP Photo/Susannah George)
“The Iraqi government did not return
the marshes to this state — the
people brought back the water,” he
said. For the region to continue to
survive, he says, the government
needs to better regulate the use of
water in the arid country and work
with its neighbors to prevent the
construction of more upstream dams
in Turkey and Iran.
He warns that if such construction
continues, “that will result in the
finishing off of Iraq’s marshes.”
GALLERY PHOTOS
October 29, 2017
26 2017
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In this Sept. 10, 2017 photo, a child stands inside a traditional reed hut deep
inside Iraq’s marshes in Chabaish, Iraq. While the region was declared a
UNESCO heritage site in 2016 the central government in Baghdad has continued
to neglect the wetlands, failing to provide basic services like electricity and
schools. (AP Photo/Susannah George)
GALLERY PHOTOS
October 29, 2017
26 2017
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In this Sept. 10, 2017 photo, a farmer transports feed for
livestock along a canal in Iraq’s southern marshes in
Chabaish, Iraq. The majority of the wetland’s inhabitants
raise water buffalo and fish to support their families but
due to decreased water quality and low fish yields, the
region is mired in poverty. (AP Photo/Susannah George)
GALLERY PHOTOS
October 29, 2017
26 2017
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In this Monday, Sept. 11, 2017 photo, the sun sets over an island paddock for
water buffalo in the Chabaish marsh in Nasiriyah, about 200 miles (320
kilometers) southeast of Baghdad, Iraq. Iraq’s southern marshes, a lush remnant
of the cradle of civilization, were reborn after the 2003 fall of Saddam Hussein
when residents dismantled dams he had built a decade earlier to drain the area
in order to root out Shiite rebels. But now the largest wetlands in the Middle
East are imperiled again, by government mismanagement and new upstream
projects.(AP Photo/Nabil al-Jurani)
GALLERY PHOTOS
October 29, 2017
26 2017
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In this Sept. 11, 2017 photo, women gut and
sell fish at a market in central Chabaish,
Iraq. In the largely agrarian society in Iraq’s
vast wetlands, women make up a sizeable
proportion of the workforce, fishing, raising
buffalo and selling in local markets. (AP
Photo/Susannah George)
GALLERY PHOTOS
October 29, 2017
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Fishermen fish in the Chabaish marsh in the Maysan province of southern
Iraq, Saturday, Jan. 7, 2017. (AP Photo/ Nabil al-Jurani)
GALLERY PHOTOS
October 29, 2017
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Water buffalo wade in the Chabaish marsh in the Maysan province of southern
Iraq, Saturday, Jan. 7, 2017. (AP Photo/ Nabil al-Jurani)
GALLERY PHOTOS
October 29, 2017
26 2017
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Boats owners are seen in the Chabaish marsh, in the Maysan province of
southern Iraq, Saturday, Jan. 7, 2017. (AP Photo/Nabil al-Jurani)
GALLERY PHOTOS
October 29, 2017
26 2017
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Boats owners are seen in the Chabaish marsh, in the Maysan province of
southern Iraq, Saturday, Jan. 7, 2017. (AP Photo/ Nabil al-Jurani)
GALLERY PHOTOS
October 29, 2017
26 2017
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In this Sept. 11, 2017 photo, a young man drives a boat through a tunnel of towering reeds, in the marsh of
Chabaish, Iraq, Sept. 11, 2017. Increasingly unable to support their families with fishing and farming, hundreds of
young men from the area took up arms in the fight against the Islamic State group, joining state-sanctioned Shiite
militias. (AP Photo/Susannah George)
GALLERY PHOTOS
October 29, 2017
26 2017
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In this Monday, Sept. 11, 2017 photo,
water buffalo walk on the bank during
sunset in the Chabaish marsh in
Nasiriyah, about 200 miles (320
kilometers) southeast of Baghdad, Iraq.
Iraq’s southern marshes, a lush remnant
of the cradle of civilization, were reborn
after the 2003 fall of Saddam Hussein
when residents dismantled dams he had
built a decade earlier to drain the area in
order to root out Shiite rebels. But now
the largest wetlands in the Middle East
are imperiled again, by government
mismanagement and new upstream
projects.(AP Photo/Nabil al-Jurani)
TEXT FROM THE AP NEWS STORY, IRAQ’S VAST MARSHES, REBORN
AFTER SADDAM, ARE IN PERIL AGAIN, BY SUSANNAH GEORGE AND
SAM MCNEIL.
PHOTOS BY NABIL AL-JURANI AND SUSANNAH GEORGE
GALLERY PHOTOS
October 29, 2017
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THE END
News story: Iraq’s vast marshes, reborn
after Saddam, are in peril again.
Oct. 26, 2017

Iraq’s vast marshes, reborn after Saddam, are in peril again - Oct.26, 2017

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Iraq’s vast marshes, reborn after Saddam, are in peril again - Oct.26, 2017