Draining of the Mesopotamian Marshes

Coordinates: 31°02′24″N 47°01′30″E / 31.04000°N 47.02500°E / 31.04000; 47.02500
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Draining of the Mesopotamian Marshes
A 1994 map of the Mesopotamian Marshes with the pink zones showing drained areas.
Date1950s–2003
LocationMesopotamian Marshes, Iraq
MotiveLand reclamation and reprisal for the Shi'ite insurrection in 1991
Organized byIraq Ba'athist Iraq
Outcome
  • 90% of the marshlands disappeared by 2000
  • Desertification of over 7,500 square miles
  • 200,000 Marsh Arabs displaced

The

Tigris-Euphrates river system. The marshes formerly covered an area of around 20,000 km2 (7,700 sq mi). The main sub-marshes, the Hawizeh, Central, and Hammar
marshes, were drained at different times for different reasons.

In the 1990s, the marshes were drained for political motives, namely to force the

1991 uprising against Saddam Hussein's government.[1] However, the government's stated reasoning was to reclaim land for agriculture and exterminate breeding grounds for mosquitoes.[2] The displacement of more than 200,000 of the Ahwaris, and the associated state-sponsored campaign of violence against them, has led the United States and others to describe the draining of the marshes as ecocide or ethnic cleansing.[3][4][5]

The draining of the Mesopotamian Marshes has been described by the United Nations as a "tragic human and environmental catastrophe" on par with the deforestation of the Amazon rainforest[6] and by other observers as one of the worst environmental disasters of the 20th century.[7]

History

Since the time of

buffalo on the natural vegetation. At times, the marshes have also served as a refuge for escaped rebels, such as during the Zanj Rebellion
.

The former

Ba'athist government.[8][9]

During the 1970s, the expansion of

oil exploration.[11]

By the mid-1980s, the marshes had become a refuge for people persecuted by the

nom de guerre Abu Hatim.[12]

Gulf War draining

Marsh Arabs in the wetlands.

After the

Shi’a insurrection against Saddam Hussein's Sunni-led Ba'athist regime, so Hussein drained the marshes largely to deny their use by insurgents and to punish the Ahwaris for their participation in the uprising.[13]

The flow southwards from the distributary streams of the Tigris was blocked by large embankments and discharged into the Al-Amarah or

Qalat Saleh.[15]
By the late 1990s, the Central Marsh had become completely desiccated, suffering the most severe damage of the three main areas of wetland. By 2000, the United Nations Environment Programme estimated that 90% of the marshlands had disappeared.

Environmental effects

The Central Marshes stretched between

marbled teal, along with several other species of non-breeding birds.[14]

It was feared that the Levant darter (Anhinga rufa chantrei), a subspecies of the

syn. Erythronesokia bunnii), which had only been described from specimens obtained in the Central Marshes, is extinct.[18]

A study by the Wetland Ecosystem Research Group at

waterfowl died as the waters receded, and that the central Qurnah marshes 'essentially no longer exist as an ecosystem'.[19]

According to a 2001

United Nations Environmental Programme report, the projects resulted in:[20]

Demographic effects

The water diversion plan, which was accompanied by a series of

Hawizeh Marshes dramatically shrank. Furthermore, villages in the marshes were torched, water was deliberately poisoned, and villagers' vehicles were attacked by government helicopters.[22] Several thousand Marsh Arabs were killed.[23]

The majority of the Ahwaris were displaced either to areas adjacent to the drained marshes, abandoning their traditional lifestyle in favour of conventional agriculture, or to towns and camps in other areas of Iraq. An estimated 80,000 to 120,000 fled to refugee camps in Iran.[24] The Marsh Arabs, who numbered about half a million in the 1950s, have dwindled to as few as 20,000 in Iraq. Only 1,600 of them were estimated to still be living on traditional dibins in their homeland by 2003.[25]

Political response

The AMAR International Charitable Foundation described the event as "an environmental and humanitarian catastrophe of monumental proportions with regional and global implications."[20]

Besides the general UN-imposed

Gulf war sanctions, there was no specific legal recourse for those displaced by the drainage projects, or prosecution of those involved. Article 2.c of the Genocide Convention (to which Iraq had acceded in 1951[26]) forbids "deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part." Additionally, the Saint Petersburg Declaration of 1868 says that "the only legitimate object which States should endeavour to accomplish during war is to weaken the military forces of the enemy", a provision potentially violated by the Ba'athist government as part of their campaign against the insurgents which had taken refuge in the marshlands. However, Iraq is not a signatory on the treaty[27]

Since water flowed unfiltered into the Gulf through the newly dug canal system, The Kuwait Regional Convention for Co-operation on the Protection of the Marine Environment from Pollution could be used to compensate Iraq's neighbours for the increase in marine pollution, but it does not protect the Ahwaris for the loss of their marshlands.[28]

Reflooding

Following the

2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, many embankments and drainage works were dismantled under the newly formed administration, and the marshes began to refill. Some of this dismantling was done by local Marsh Arabs acting on their own. The Central Marshes showed little recovery through 2003, but by early 2004 a patchwork of lakes had appeared in northern areas. There was flooding in southern areas which had previously been dry since the early 1990s.[29]

There has been some corresponding recolonization by the natural marsh vegetation since that time, and return of some species of fish and birds. However, recovery of the Central Marshes has been much slower compared to the Huwaizah and Hammar Marshes; the most severely damaged sections of the wetlands did not show any signs of regeneration by 2006.

contaminated water from farms and villages.[32]

See also

References

  1. ^ The Iraqi Government Assault on the Marsh Arabs (PDF) (Report). Human Rights Watch. January 2003. Retrieved June 20, 2018.
  2. ^ "Marsh Arabs". ICE Case Studies. January 2001. Retrieved 2018-06-20.
  3. ^ "The Marsh Arabs of Iraq: Hussein's Lesser Known Victims". United States Institute of Peace. November 25, 2002.
  4. ^ Nadeem A Kazmi, Sayyid (2000). "The Marshlands of Southern Iraq: A Very Humanitarian Dilemma" (PDF). III Jornadas de Medio Oriente. Retrieved 20 June 2018.
  5. S2CID 225410094
    .
  6. ^ Partow, Hassan (August 13, 2001). "UN ENVIRONMENT PROGRAMME RELEASES REPORT ON DEMISE OF MESOPOTAMIAN MARSHLANDS" (Press release). Nairobi/Stockholm: United Nations. UN Environment Programme. Retrieved 2018-06-20.
  7. ISSN 1744-7933
    .
  8. ^ Masour Askari Iraq's Ecological Disaster Archived 2021-01-18 at the Wayback Machine International Review, February 2003
  9. ^ "January 30, 2010 Report to Congress" (PDF). Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction. p. 61. Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 July 2011. Retrieved 14 August 2010.
  10. ^ Spencer, M. The Marsh Arabs RevisitedSaudi Aramco World, April 1982 Archived 2009-01-07 at the Wayback Machine
  11. ^ "Iraq and Kuwait 1972, 1990, 1991, 1997". NASA. Archived from the original on 29 April 2012. Retrieved 7 August 2010.
  12. ^ Juan Cole, Marsh Arab Rebellion Archived 2008-06-14 at the Wayback Machine, Indiana University Bloomington, 2005, p.12
  13. ^ The Iraqi Government Assault on the Marsh Arabs (PDF) (Report). Human Rights Watch. January 2003. Retrieved June 20, 2018.
  14. ^ a b Central Marshes, birdlife.org
  15. ^ a b The Physical Characteristics of the Mesopotamian Marshlands, edenagain.org
  16. ^ Abed, J.M. (2007). Status of Water Birds in Restored Southern Iraqi Marshes. Marsh Bulletin 2(1): 64-79.
  17. IUCN
    Otter Spec. Group Bull. 30(1).
  18. ISBN 978-2-8317-0270-4
    .
  19. ^ North, Andrew (1994-05-17). "Saddam drains life from Arab marshes: Scientists fear Iraq's historic wetlands face destruction in 10 to 20 years". The Independent. London. Retrieved 2010-08-01.
  20. ^ a b "marshes". Archived from the original on 2010-04-17. Retrieved 2010-08-01.
  21. ^ Robert Fisk, The Great War for Civilisation, Harper, London 2005, p.844
  22. UNEP
    , p. 44
  23. ISBN 9781316712566
    .
  24. ^ Iraq's Marsh Arabs, Modern Sumerians Archived 2011-05-27 at the Wayback Machine - The Oregonian, May 14, 2003
  25. ^ Cole, p.13
  26. ^ "UNTC". treaties.un.org. Archived from the original on 2015-09-07. Retrieved 2015-09-28.
  27. Independent.co.uk
    . 30 August 1992. Retrieved 2015-09-28.
  28. ^ Daniel Ruiz. "Ecocide in the Iraqi Marshes". Retrieved 2010-08-01.
  29. ^ Iraq Marshlands Restoration Program[permanent dead link], iraqmarshes.org, p.6
  30. UNHCR
    , 2006, p.44
  31. ^ Schwartzstein, Peter (2015-07-09). "Iraq's Famed Marshes Are Disappearing—Again". National Geographic News. National Geographic. Archived from the original on July 11, 2015. Retrieved 2018-06-20.
  32. S2CID 31200966
    . Retrieved 2018-06-20.

31°02′24″N 47°01′30″E / 31.04000°N 47.02500°E / 31.04000; 47.02500

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