Wetland restoration in Iraq

Uncontrolled releases of Tigris and Euphrates River waters after the 2003 war have partially restored some former marsh areas in southern Iraq, but restoration is failing in others because of high soil and water salinities. Rapid reestablishment, high productivity, and reproduction of native flora and fauna in reflooded former marsh areas indicate a high probability for successful restoration, provided the restored wetlands are hydraulically able to allow sufficient flow of noncontaminated water and flushing of salts through the ecosystem.

The wetlands in the middle and lower basin of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in Iraq were, until recently, the most extensive wetlands in the Middle East.

They are already depicted on an old Sumerian map, dating from the early 5th century B.C., one of the oldest pictures of a peatland in the world.

 

The Marsh Region (> 35,000 km2) consisted of extensive shallow marshes covered with reeds in which the groundwater is near or above the land surface. In the non-cultivated semi-marsh areas, a considerable amount of organic material, up to 25 cm thick, was left behind when flooding receded. A common practise was to burn the organic matter in order to get better grazing land. Therefore there was no uniform deep peaty layer over large areas. Furthermore, peaty layers have been covered by clastic deposits resulting from erosion. The drainage of marshes is an old custom in Iraq, some marshes were drained and reclaimed already in Acheamenian times (550-330 BC).The increasing utilization of the waters of the Tigris and Euphrates for irrigation in Turkey, Syria and northern and central Iraq has caused a considerable loss of wetland habitat in lower Mesopotamia during the 20th century. Wetland drainage has been taking place on a large scale since the 1950s and, by the end of the 1980s, had already resulted in the conversion of vast areas of former wetland habitat into agricultural land. As early as 1954, Wilfred Thesiger expressed concern at the future of the marshes and the welfare of their human inhabitants. In an article in the Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, he remarked that “in the next few years the marshes will be drained and the marshmen as I have known them will disappear”.In the last 25 years, the wetlands of lower Mesopotamia and neighbouring Iran have come under considerable pressure from regional conflicts. Much of the fighting during the prolonged Iran-Iraq War (1980-88) took place in and around the wetlands and involved extensive burning, heavy bombing and shelling, and widespread use of chemical weapons. Large areas of reed-beds were deliberately destroyed by Iraqi troops during searches for deserters; heavily armoured boats were used to crash through reed-beds, special reedcutting machines were used, and large areas were simply set on fire. Similar methods were used after the 1991 Gulf War to search for anti-government rebels.

Textfeld: Sumerian map, dating from the early 5th century B.C. (Location: British Library, London) (www.icra.at/logo_original.htm, Ryan & Pitman 1998) The Heavenly Ocean encircles the world, the earth is displayed as a circular disc. Enclosed by the circle of the Earthly Ocean lies an oblong marked “Babylon” with two parallel lines running to it from mountains at the edge of the enclosure, and running on to a marsh which is identified by two parallel lines near the bottom of the circle. The marsh can be identified as the swamp of lower present-day Iraq, its identity secured by the name Bit Yakin at its left end, the so called “Sea Country” and known to be a tribal territory covering marshland. A trumpet-shaped arm of the ocean curves around the right end of the marsh so that its neck touches the lines from Babylon. Despite the absence of a name, it is clear that the parallel lines running to and from Babylon represent the river Euphrates. In the summer of 1991, the Iraqi Government embarked upon a massive programme of hydrological control and wetland drainage in Lower Mesopotamia, in an area that is roughly delineated by the triangle of Amara, Nasiriya, and Basrah. Officially, the engineering schemes were designed to reduce salinisation problems, to reclaim new land for food production, and to increase the amount of water available for irrigation. As a result of engineering works, a large part of the Central Marshes was drained. One third of the Central Marshes had dried out already by August 1992, two-thirds were dry by mid-1993, some 90% were destroyed by 2000. Duke Last April a team funded by the Italian government began the first in situ study of the marshes, focusing on a small marsh of about 200 square kilometers called Abu Zirig. Curtis Richardson fromt University (Durham, North Carolina) used U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) funding to examine other marsh regions during two visits. He questions whether there is enough water to flush the marshes with clean water to remove the salt and hydrogen sulfide.

Textfeld: A composite Landsat satellite view of the Mesopotamian marshlands (from Richardson et al. 2005) For decades, foreign and even Iraqi researchers were forbidden to enter the marshes, and in the 1990s the government destroyed a research station in the Hammar. As a result, most studies have relied upon Landsat remote-sensing data. After the U.S. invasion in 2003, foreign scientists suddenly gained access, but simultaneously local residents jubilantly broke open the dikes and dams, reflooding nearly half of the marshes. The reflooding has been chaotic, however, and many dikes and dams from the Saddam era remain. But there is plenty of water available also because the U.S. invasion coincided with the end of a long drought. Given the fast pace of dam construction in countries upstream and the possibility of another drought, however, renewed desertification is likely. During the next year, scientists using Italian funding hope to map the current water flow

During the next year, scientists using Italian funding hope to map the current water flow in the Iraq marshes to understand how to stabilize and revitalize the marshes. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is working up a model that details the flow of the Tigris and Euphrates. Meanwhile, the Center for Restoration of the Iraqi Marshes (CRIM), an organization of several Iraqi ministries created last fall in Venice, will put together a “master plan”. CRIM is supposed to bring all disparate parties together and to negotiate a deal with Turkey, Syria, and Iran on water rights--a crucial element in any restoration plan. But it is quite obvious that there isn't enough water to restore all the desiccated marshes.

Further information:

Andrew Lawler: Reviving Iraq's Wetlands, Science, Vol 307, Issue 5713, 1186-1189 , 25 February 2005

Curtis J. Richardson et al.: The Restoration Potential of the Mesopotamian Marshes of Iraq, Science, Vol 307, Issue 5713, 1307-1311 , 25 February 2005

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ancient battleground.

Relief from the palace of Assyrian King Sennacherib, who sent troops to ferret out rebels in the species-rich Mesopotamian marshes in the late 7th century B.C. From: Lawler 2005.