From NewScientist.com: Iraqis reclaim their ancient wetlands
The Marsh Arabs of Iraq have given up waiting for outsiders to restore their wetlands. Local people are taking matters into their own hands by breaching dykes and shutting down pumping stations in a bid to restore the marshes drained by Saddam Hussein's regime. But some experts worry that their actions could hamper the region's recovery. (...)
At one time, the marshes covered between 15,000 and 20,000 square kilometres in what the UN Environment Programme described as a "biodiversity centre of global importance". Thought by Bible scholars to be the location of the Garden of Eden and the Flood, the marshes surrounding the confluence of the Euphrates and Tigris supported the Madan, or Marsh Arabs, for 5000 years.
But a combination of 32 dam projects upstream and the deliberate draining of the land by Saddam's regime reduced the marshes to five per cent of their previous extent. "The people want their land back," says Azzam Alwash, an Iraqi-American water engineer exiled to California. [continue]
Related links:
Marsh Arabs - from EnviroLiteracy.org
Marsh Arabs Cling to Memories of a Culture Nearly Crushed by Hussein - from IraqFoundation.org
Marsh Arabs - photo gallery - from Tor Eigeland.com
Marsh Arabs ambivalent about returning to their lost paradise - from The Guardian, April 26th, 2003.
Iraq's 'devastated' Marsh Arabs - from the BBC, March 3rd, 2003.
Marsh Arab civilisation disappearing as Iraqi wetlands are drained - from The Guardian, May 19th, 2001.