Iraqis Work To Reclaim Lost Marshland

At one time, Iraq's marshes were the largest wetlands in the entire Middle East. That all changed after the 1991 uprising against Saddam Husseing as the marshes became a hiding place and safe haven for dissenters to Saddam Hussein's regime. The brutal crackdown in the aftermath of that uprising was marked by a massive project of canals, dams and pipes to divert the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers from the marshes and into a depression in the desert. The project was quite sucessful, "by the late 1990s, satellite images indicated that less than 10 percent of Iraq's marshland had any water." Now, in the wake of Hussein's fall, Iraqi engineers are beginning the long process of restoring the environment and a centuries old way of life.

Thanks to Suzanne Wright-Lin