Desperate situation in Mesopotamian marshes

I am currently assisting in putting together three panels for the Woprld Congress on Middle Eastern Studies in Barcelona, Spain in July, 2010. The situation in the marshes has worsened badly, with the Shat al Arab running salt water. With low flows and drought, the Shat al Arab has increased salinity levels from 1 ppt to 9-13 ppt and even higher. Sea wter has started to reach far to the north of the Shat al Arab, with big changes in the biodiversity. Marine species are now seen in places where they never occurred before. Shad populations, an important fish species, have declined 75%. Many other invertebrates are also declining, and the salty turbid water with warmer termperatures is adversely affecting fish production and biodiveristy in the Gulf. The people and the water buffaloes have no where to go, its an ecological and human rights disaster!

Talk on marshes on Feb 26, 2010

I will be giving a talk on my recent trip to Iraq on Feb 26, 2010 at 7:30 pm at the Placer Nature Center's Lecture Series.
Title of Talk: Mesopotamian Marshes of Iraq: Restoring the Garden
Time of Talk: 7:00 music starts, 7:30 talk begins
Location: Unity of Auburn's auditorium on 1212 High St., Auburn, CA 95603. (530) 878-6053
Cost: $10 general tickets, $5 students

Terrible Water Scarcity In Marshes

Desperate Plight of the Mesopotamian Marshes, southern Iraq
By Michelle L. Stevens, Assistant Professor, CSUS, Environmental Studies Department, 916-765-7397, stevensm@csus.edu

I have been a member of the Society of Wetland Scientists since the mid-1980’s, and have worked in the wetlands field professionally since that time. The most compelling, heart breaking and inspiring project I have ever worked on is the rehydration and now desiccation of the marshes of Iraq, and the adverse impacts on both the people of the marshes and the ecosystem. I became familiar with the ecological and cultural geography of the Mesopotamian Marshes in 2002, while serving as project manager for the Eden Again project (Eden Again Project 2003). Azzam and Suzie Alwash, founders of Eden Again/ Nature Iraq, inspired me with their dedication and commitment to the sustainable cultural and ecological restoration of the marshes (www.natureiraq.org).
In April 2009, I was invited by the Marine Science Center at the University of Basrah, Iraq to give the keynote address at the 3rd International Conference on the Rehabilitation of the Iraqi Southern Marshes. Iraqi scientists asked me to assist with translating a referendum to be signed by the 500 conference participants, which was an “appeal to governments of the neighboring countries and international societies to help by insuring and assigning a specific share of water for the Mespotamian Marshes. For over thousands of years the cultures and ecosystem of the al Ahwar marshes have flourished and been sustained through life giving waters; we request enough water to restore and preserve the biodiversity and long lasting cultural heritage of this region”. I am asking SWS scientists to go to my web site at www.csus.edu/indiv/s/stevensm to sign a petition in support with the Iraqi scientists.
The Mesopotamian Marshes of southern Iraq and Iran are the largest wetland ecosystem in the Middle East and Western Eurasia, historically covering over 12,000 km2 of interconnected lakes, mudflats, and wetlands. In what the United Nations Environmental Program has declared “one of the world’s greatest environmental disasters”, over 90% of the marshlands were desiccated through the combined actions of upstream damming of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers and downstream drainage projects undertaken by the Iraqi Baathist government.
With good water years since 2003, approximately 68% of marshes had been rejuvenated (an area approximately the size of the Everglades), and people had returned to their lives in the marshes. Draft comprehensive management plans for the Hawizeh Marsh Ramsar site and the Central Marsh proposed National Park have been prepared by the Government of Iraq. Unfortunately, the past two water years have resulted in severe drought and now the Mesopotamian Marshes are once again drying up. Less than 25% of the marshes remained hydrated in June 2009 . The Twin Rivers water levels continue to drop; marshes recede; salinities increase; and the fish, reeds and water buffalo that embody the marshes die. After persecution and genocide under Saddam Hussein, the Ma’dan came home to the marshes hoping to regain their traditional lifestyle. With their marsh homeland disappearing into a salt-encrusted wasteland, they are once again a people dispossessed. The Ma’dan are now becoming urban refugee squatting on lands they do not have ownership or rights to, attempting to eke out an existence with their water buffalo. The fragility and vulnerability of the vast marsh ecosystem needs stronger action by the Iraqi government, to negotiate riparian water rights from upstream users in the Tigris-Euphrates watershed.
"The drought is indeed very serious," UN Environment Programme (UNEP) expert Hassan Partow told the BBC by email (Muir 2009). "The 2007-2008 season was one of the worst droughts on record, and snowfall in the catchments feeding the Tigris and Euphrates has also been limited. For the marshes, which are fed by a snow-driven hydrology, the spring snowmelt in March/April is critical… The signs don't look great." (See Figure 1). The proliferation of dams and irrigation schemes have disrupted natural flows and choked off much of the water supply. While Iraq has water-sharing agreements with neighboring countries, they are not effective, and there is a continuous loss of water quality, water supply, and marshland ecosystem functions and cultural services. The Central and Hamar marshes are also being dehydrated due to upstream water diversions of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in Turkey and Syria. Iran's damming of the Karkheh River, which feeds directly into the Hor al Hawizeh marsh, is resulting in the desiccation and destruction of Iraq’s most pristine remaining marsh.
It has been a tragic and bittersweet year for the Hor al Haweizeh marsh, recommended as a Peace Park between Iran and Iraq (Stevens 2007). In October 2007, the Ramsar Convention of Wetlands announced that the Hawizeh Marsh was designated a Wetland of International Significance, and Iraq’s first Ramsar site. Simultaneously to the marshes being awarded international conservation status, Iran began diverting water from the Karkheh River and is completing construction of a militarized border dyke choking off water flows into Iraq.
It is especially sad that many the Ma’dan were returning to the marshes from exile in Iran; those who lived as environmental refugees throughout the 1990’s returned to the marshes with their water buffalo. Even with the original rehydration of large marsh areas, much of the marsh ecosystem remained in poor condition. Less than 10% of the original marshes in Iraq remained as fully functioning wetlands by 2003 (Richardson et al 2005). Drought and water withdrawals are now again desiccating the marshes, and pollution of water, air, and land is extremely severe (Nature Iraq 2009). Iraq’s environmental problems include the following: 1) water resource pollution (including groundwater); 2) ecosystem and biodiversity degradation; 3) waste and sanitation disposal; and 4) industrial and military pollutants and unexploded ordinance. Reduced flows have exacerbated water quality problems.
With low flows, salinity in the Shat al Arab has increased from salinity levels of 1 ppt to 4-5 ppt (data provided by Basra Marine Science Center, unpublished). Flows are significantly reduced. In 1977-1978 flows in the Shat al Arab ranged from 990-1,277 m3/sec; in 1993-1994 flows ranged from 550-1,100 m3/sec; in 2005-2006 flows were as low as 204 m3/sec; and in 2008-2009 flows reached a low of <100 m3/sec. Shad populations have declined 75%. Many other invertebrates are also declining, and the salty turbid water with warmer temperatures is adversely affecting fish production and biodiversity in the Gulf. The environment I witnessed in Basra had shattered buildings, and rivers so polluted with the algae (Dunaliella sp) that the water turned bright pink. Garbage was everywhere, and stray dogs snuffled through the garbage, well fed but in ill health. Heavy particulates from dust caused the air to appear sepia-toned, and visibility was similar to dense fog.
The marshes are a culturalized landscape, formed over thousands of years by agricultural and traditional management. Because the marsh ecosystem is adapted to human management, economic stability and the success of the restoration effort depends on integration of both the Marsh Arab and local Iraqi culture, sustainable ecosystem services, and the economic stability of a large portion of southern Iraq. Water buffalo illustrate this point, as they represent both an umbrella species and a cultural icon, important to the well-being of indigenous Ma’dan people. They are also a keystone species in the marsh ecosystem. “Water buffalo are widespread through the marshes in the south of Iraq. There are no houses in the marshes without a water buffalo. They are the main source of livelihood of people in the marshes, and are indicators of the quality of marsh life and restoration of the Iraqi marshes. I expect that the absence of water buffaloes will lead to the disappearance of people in the marshes” (Al Fartosi, pers comm., 2009).
Jassim Al-Asadi of Nature Iraq, says “There is drought, the water levels are getting lower and water quality has worsened; the marshes are continuously shrinking. This leads to great suffering, especially for the water buffalo breeders and fishermen. We must put pressure on decision makers to implement temporary solutions to provide marshes with water from the rivers. Please help us in writing and demanding water from Turkey and Iran, providing us with the water required to revive the marshes”. About 10% of the marsh is shared with Iran (where it is called the al Azim marsh), where that area is being systematically drained.
The marshes are loved by the Iraqi people, and they are anxious to see the marshes restored. Over 500 Iraqi scientists and researchers have appealed to the Iraqi government, other governments in the Tigris-Euphrates watershed, and scientific organizations for help to ensure maintenance flows of water for the Iraqi Mesopotamian marshes. They ask for help to make the world aware of the continued degradation of the marshes and to help apply pressure on adjacent riparian countries to allow water flows into the system. This is a regional issue affecting all of the Middle Eastern countries in one way or another; basin wide planning or third party negotiation needs to occur for equitable water sharing. It seems apparent that without intervention from powerful outside countries to broker water rights in the Twin Rivers watershed, the marshes will die and the people will be dispossessed of their lifestyle, their cultural heritage, and the beloved marshes.
If you would like to sign the petition in support of Iraq efforts to restore water to the marshes, please go to my web site at www.cuss.edu/indiv/s/stevensm Please contact Michelle Stevens blog at iraqmarshrestoration.blogspot.com, my email mstevens@csus.edu. Thank you.

References
Al Fartosi, Khalid, Pers Comm., April 2009, Basrah, Iraq
Bowman, R. E. 2005. Global cornerstones for environmental recovery in Iraq: A comparative law and policy analysis of lessons in environmental response and remediation. N.Y.U. Environmental Law Journal 13: 501-560.
Eden Again Project, Iraq Foundation. 2003. Building a scientific basis for restoration of the Mesopotamian Marshlands. Findings of the international technical advisory panel restoration planning workshop.
Muir, J. 2009. Iraq marshes face grave new threat. BBC News, Middle East, Iraq (2/24/2009) http://news.bbc.co.uk (February 24, 2009)
Nature Iraq. 2009. http://www.natureiraq.org/Eng/home.html(May 25, 2009)
Richardson, C.J., P. Reiss, N.A. Hussain, A. Alwash, and D.J. Pool , 2005. The restoration potential of the Mesopotamian Marshes of Iraq. Science 25 (2005): 1307–1311.
Stevens, M.L. 2007. Iran and Iraq reconsidered: the Mesopotamian Marshes and the al ahwar peace park. Salim H. Ali, ed., Peace parks: Conservation and conflict resolution (Global Environmental Accord: Strategies for Sustainability and Institutional Innovation), MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 406.

Drought Threatens `Garden of Eden' Marshes in Iraq - ABC News

Drought Threatens `Garden of Eden' Marshes in Iraq - ABC News

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Drought Threatens `Garden of Eden' Marshes in Iraq
By HADI MIZBAN
The Associated Press
HOR AL-HAMMAR, Iraq

A severe drought is threatening Iraq's southern marshes — the traditional site of the biblical
Garden of Eden — just as the region was recovering from Saddam Hussein's draining of its lakes and swamps to punish a political rebellion.

Marshes that were coming back to life a few years ago with U.N. help are again little more than vast expanses of cracked earth. The area's thousands of inhabitants, known as Marsh Arabs, are victims of the debilitating drought that has ravaged much of Iraq and neighboring countries the last two years.

"I have no work. Our livestock have died, our children have left school because we don't have money to buy them clothes," said fisherman Yasir Razaq. He spoke in front of his wooden boat, which sat on a dried-up lake bed in the Hor al-Hammar marsh near Nasiriyah, 200 miles south of Baghdad.

"Before when there was fishing, we could get money for children's clothes," he said. "Now we have lost everything and our situation is miserable."

The Marsh Arab culture existed for more than 5,000 years in the 8,000 square miles of wetlands fed by the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. The marshes boasted hundreds of species of birds and fish, and periodic flooding created fertile farm lands.

The flooded, flat plain is said to have played an important role in the development of an agriculture-based culture that helped raise civilization to new heights. Some biblical scholars identified the vast marshes — the most extensive wetlands in the Middle East — as the site of the fabled Garden of Eden.

But after the 1991 Gulf War, the marshes became a casualty of Iraq's religiously based politics.
Saddam, a Sunni Muslim, considered the thousands of mostly Shiite Marsh Arabs to be disloyal — first in the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s and more seriously when Shiites in southern Iraq rose up against his regime after a U.S.-led coalition forced the Iraqi army out of Kuwait.
Many Shiite rebels hid among the Marsh Arabs in the forests of reeds and myriad of lakes. To punish them, Saddam built a massive network of dams and earthen walls to divert water and dry the marshes.

The effect was devastating.

By the time Saddam was overthrown in 2003, the marshes had shrunk by 90 percent from their size in the 1970s, when they had covered nearly 3,500 square miles — larger than Delaware.
Many experts direly predicted that the marshes might disappear entirely by 2008. The United Nations launched an $11 million project to restore the marshes, including removing some of the barriers that were keeping water from flowing into the area. And by 2006, more than half the original marshlands had successfully flooded.

"Our ministry right from beginning ... started considering the restoration of the marshes area to be our priority," said Iraqi Water Resources Minister Abdul-Latif Jamal Rasheed, adding that the effort had achieved some success. The marsh restoration programs depend on adequate water flow in the Tigris and the Euphrates, the two rivers that gave Iraq its ancient name of Mesopotamia — Greek for "land between the rivers."

But the recent drought has caused the levels of those two rivers to fall. Iraq's winter ended without adequate rain for a second year in a row. Overall, the rainfall for the last two years has been only about 30 to 40 percent of normal levels— not only in Iraq but in Syria and southeastern Turkey to the north, where the great rivers begin. By the time the rivers meander through Iraq down to its southern marshes, much of the water has already been diverted into canals to irrigate parched farm fields.

Last month, the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization and the Iraqi government announced a new $47 million program last month to restore the marshes, focusing on the southern provinces of Maysan, Dhi Qar and Basra. But the program's Iraq director, Dr. Fadel el-Zubi, expressed doubt that the marshes can be fully restored without a break in the drought. Also needed are new water-sharing agreements among countries in the region including Syria and Iran to give Iraq more access to water, he said. "There is much less water coming from neighboring countries," he said. "So the amount of water going to the marshlands will be less."
Much of the program is aimed at improving the lives of Marsh Arabs, who pursue a life of fishing and foraging that has not changed substantially for thousands of years.

Among other things, the program will include restocking the marshes with fish capable of surviving in areas where low water levels have raised the salt content, el-Zubi said.
He said the program would also help people in the region replenish their livestock, mostly sheep and water buffalo. "The main goal is to restore the maximum that you can within the coming five years and to enable the marshland people to resume farming, livestock production and so on," he said.

Even with the drought, the outlook for the marshes is better than a decade ago.
But that means little to many of the Marsh Arabs. "We hoped the new government might do something," said a fisherman who gave his name only as Mohammed because he feared criticizing the government publicly. "But it's still the same. This is the second time that the water has been drained away."
———
Associated Press writers Kim Gamel and Sinan Salaheddin in Baghdad contributed to this report.
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Copyright © 2009 ABC News Internet Ventures
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Request for signatures to preserve biodiversity and cultural heritage of marshes: urgent need for water

This petition has been signed by the 500 Iraqi scientists and participants in the Third Scientific Conference on the Rehabilitation of Southern Iraqi Marshes. Over 22 percent of the marshes have been dried up through a combination of drought and upstream water diversions. The animals and people of Iraq are suffering terribly. Please help spread the word! Sign this petition and alert our government to support the Iraqi's in obtaining water rights for the marshland area.

Appeal to save the Mesopotamian marshes

History has recorded the honourable stand of many personalities, international trends and organizations in denouncing the crime of marshes desiccation during the 1990s and onwards. Iraqi scientists respect and appreciate highly that stand and consider it as the foundation stone which has later gathered the efforts to rehabilitate the marshes and save its people and its biota.

The desiccation of the marshlands led to catastrophic consequences on the environment and the eco-cultural heritage of the region. Large number of plant and animal species disappeared, the biodiversity has changed drastically, the migrating bird ceased coming for their natural breeding habitat, air temperature increased in the surroundings and the air became rather dusty. Most important of all is the loss of the long lasting eco-cultural heritage of the Mesopotamian marshes.
During 2003, the efforts of several international organizations and governments to restore the marshland have begun, and soon after almost 70% of the original marshlands were restored successfully. This has not been achieved without the sincere efforts of several governmental and international organizations. Unfortunately, rehabilitation of the marshes did not proceed as it was hopped for and the environment began to deteriorate again owing to water cut by some of the neighboring countries.

The scientists and researchers gathered in the 3rd International Conference on the Rehabilitation of the Iraqi Southern Marshes appeal to governments of the neighboring countries and international societies to help insuring and assigning a specific share of water for the Iraqi Mesopotamian marshes enough to restore and preserve its biodiversity and its long lasting cultural heritage.

On NPR today

Today I was on NPR on the marshes. To hear the radio podcast go to www.capradio.org/insight.

You are also invited to a public talk onWed April 29 at 4:00 pm in 1001 Mariposa Hall on the CSUS campus

Shatt al Arab April 16

Several of us went out on a large boat on the Shatt al Arab from Basrah. This is upriver from Iran, although the impacts of the Iran-Iraq war could be seen. There were a lot of large dead ships in the water and along the banks. This would be worth a fortune in salvage, that metal would be worth millions at least! There was not much riparian vegetation, and all exposed flat areas were covered with garbage. There was not a lot of additional boat traffic besides us.
Some of the side channels were quite lovely, with date palm trees and bougainvillea and reeds. You got a sense of the pre-war Shat al Arab, and how beautiful it was. We got to get out and walk around on private land at one point, and stretch our legs. Saw some beautiful birds in the natural areas. Very little riparian development along the main stem of the river. A great restoration opportunity, including native species and date palms – a living working landscape!
A patrol boat drove up to us with American and Iraqi soldiers. They were patrolling “to keep us safe.” I was wearing a scarf and looked down with my back to them and stayed quiet. I guess if they knew an American woman was on board they would have really hassled us for a long time, wondering what I was doing there. It made me realize things weren’t really safe. They were suspicious and kept getting their boat closer - I’m so much taller than Iraqi women, plus I was in field clothes and they were dressed beautifully. The soldiers asked if we had guns, meanwhile saying they were there to protect us and acting friendly. We were glad when they left.
We passed Saddam’s palace. It was huge. He had never been in it. The British and now Iraqi soldiers are garrisoned there. A sign says anyone coming within 50 feet will be shot. We stayed far away.
The joy of the day was being with Iraqi families and visiting on the boat. It was thoroughly an enjoyable treat to be with everyone.
However, the air was horrible. It wasn’t a driving dust storm, but the air was foglike and sepia toned from all the dust. It obscured our vision, and burned eyes and lungs. Pretty awful.
I’m left with the impression that this area has highly polluted air, land and water. It’s very important to document toxins with good lab equipment to then remediate and begin to rebuild a healthy environment. The Shat al Arab is much more salty, from 1 ppt to 4-5 ppt. Flows are significantly reduced. In 1977-1978 they were from 990-1,277 m3/sec; in 1993-1994 550-1,100 m3/sec, from 2005-2006 204 m3/sec, and this year <100 m3/sec. That is a significant reduction. Shad populations have declined 75%. Many other invertebrates etc are also declining, and the salty turbid water with warmer temperatures is adversely affecting the gulf. Terrible degradation of ecosystem structure and function.