This is the sad story of the demise of the Marshes of Iraq, known also by the name Ahwar or Ahwaz, which is described by the United Nations as one of the worst environmental disasters in history.

Iraq is traversed by two great rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates, both of which rise in the eastern mountains of Turkey and enter Iraq along its northwestern borders. After flowing for some 1,200 km through Iraq, these two rivers converge just north of Basrah, to form the tidal Shatt Al Arab waterway, which flows some 110 km to enter the Gulf. The Euphrates does not receive any tributaries within Iraq, while the Tigris receives four main tributaries, the Khabour, Great Zab, Little Zab and Diyala, which rise in the mountains of eastern Turkey and northwestern Iran and flow in a southwesterly direction until they meet the Tigris River. A seasonal river, Al Authaim, rising in the highlands of northern Iraq also flows into the Tigris, and is the only significant tributary arising entirely within Iraq.

The wetlands in the middle and lower basin of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in Iraq were, until recently at least, form the most extensive wetland ecosystems in the Middle East. In their lower courses, these two great rivers have created a vast network of wetlands, the Mesopotamian Marshes, covering about 15,000 sq km. These wetlands comprise a complex of inter-connected shallow freshwater lakes, marshes and seasonally inundated floodplains extending from the region of Basrah in the east to within 150 km of Baghdad in the west. Winter rains in the headwaters of the Tigris and Euphrates in southern Turkey, Syria and northern Iraq cause extensive flooding throughout Mesopotamia and fill up the lake systems in the south. Water levels reach their maximum in early spring and then fall by as much as two metres during the hot dry summer. Much the largest wetlands within this complex are: (a) the Hawr Al Hammar and its associated marshes south of the Euphrates; (b) the Central Marshes, a vast complex of permanent lakes and marshes north of the Euphrates and west of the Tigris; and (c) Haur Al Hawizeh and its associated marshes extending east from the Tigris into neighbouring Iran. These wetlands eventually drain southeastwards into the Gulf via the Shatt Al Arab waterway.

The Mesopotamian Marshlands are an integral part of the Tigris-Euphrates river basin shared by Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey. Some Biblical scholars believe the region to be the site on which ancient stories of the Garden of Eden and the Great Flood are based. Up until a dozen years ago, the Ma'adan, or the Arab Marsh dwellers, led a life characterized by fishing, farming, weaving, hunting, and grazing water buffalo, a life not entirely unrecognizable to their Babylonian and Sumerian ancestors 5,000 years ago.

The marshland region is also the site of some of the richest oil deposits in the country. Iraq's proven oil reserves, estimated at 112 billion barrels, are second only to those of Saudi Arabia, and its major reserves are in the southern region. Of those located in the marshlands, the largest are the Majnun fields with reserves of 10-30 billion barrels, and West Qurna with reserves of 15 billion barrels.

Prior to their destruction, the marshlands (al-Ahwar) had covered an area of up to 20,000 square kilometers (during the flood seasons) around the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in southern Iraq. Administratively, the marshlands cut across three of Iraq's eighteen provinces: Misan (originally al-`Amara), Dhi Qar (originally al-Nasiriyya), and Basra. Together, these wetlands formed a series of interconnected permanent marshes and lakes covering in the summer an area of some 8,800 square kilometers, but would extend to some 20,000 kilometers when large tracts of dry or desert land were seasonally inundated.

Throughout Iraq, the level of exploitation of wetlands is high. The economy of many of the peoples living in the region has been closely involved with wetlands for at least 6,000 years. Civilization was well established in Mesopotamia by the 4th millennium BC, and a sophisticated irrigation system developed at that time. Floodplain wetlands, river banks and lake shores are utilized for the cultivation of cereals, rice or vegetables, while the rivers and lakes themselves support intensive freshwater fisheries. In the vast reed-lands of Mesopotamia, marsh-dwelling communities are almost totally dependent on reeds for their construction needs. Large numbers of domestic livestock, particularly water buffalo, are allowed to graze on wetland vegetation, and aquatic plants are harvested to provide fodder during the winter months.

Until the 1950s, the traditional subsistence lifestyle of the people had hardly been disturbed. Their largely self-sufficient economy, structured around the aquatic environment, was based on the traditional occupations of fishing, cultivation, buffalo breeding, and reed gathering (from which a cane handicrafts industry evolved). Migration to urban centers, whether for permanent or seasonal work, accounted for much of the reduction in the size of the indigenous population up to the late 1980s, when the government policies targeting the Marsh Arabs described in this briefing dramatically increased the pace of depopulation.

Life in the marshes was extremely hard, and as Iraq became increasingly prosperous during the 1960s and 1970s and even into the 1980s, the lack of amenities and the harsh environment would have encouraged many marsh dwellers, particularly educated young people, to leave for the cities. Urban economic activity became the main source of income for many families even though, geographically and administratively, the marshlands themselves remained relatively isolated. Even by the early 1970s, the encroachment of the Iraqi state-in the form of educational and health services as well as the permanent presence of law enforcement and administrative personnel-had only reached the outer and more accessible fringes of the marshlands. It was only during and in the aftermath of the Iran-Iraq war that the Iraqi government began to draw up plans for direct military intervention in the area.

In 1991, shortly after the first Persian Gulf War ended, the government, angered by Marsh Arab participation in the southern uprising against the regime, launched an assault on the southern wetlands and the inhabitant Marsh Arabs. The assault included burning villages, summary executions and "disappearances," and a multi-year, sophisticated campaign of water diversion and marsh drainage that has reduced roughly 93 percent of the marshes to dry, salt-encrusted wasteland.

Extensive damming by Turkey and Syria in the 1950s in the upper Tigris-Euphrates river basin also negatively impacted the marshlands, but the majority of the destruction of the teeming Iraqi wetlands that are larger than Florida's Everglades began with Saddam Hussein's campaign.

A report released by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in 2001 alerted the world that only about 7 percent of the once-extensive marshlands remained. Satellite evidence showed the wetland complex, which the report called "a biodiversity center of global importance," had shrunk to a 386-square-mile (1,000-square-kilometer) marsh straddling the Iran-Iraq border.

UNEP described it as one of the worst environmental disasters in history, ranking it with the desiccation of the Aral Sea and the deforestation of the Amazon rainforests. The marshlands are a breeding ground and stop-over point for migratory birds. The environmental degradation put an estimated 40 species of birds and untold species of fish at risk, and led to the extinction of at least seven species. Two other species-the Sacred Ibis and African Darter-are near extinction. These marshlands now contain a handful of the species that once made the area home. Several of these unique species, like the smooth-covered otter and the bandicoot rat may now be extinct. Fishes from the coastal fisheries depended on the marshes for spawning. Migratory birds from Asia, Europe, and South Africa which used to flock to the marshes, now have no where to go. The marshes are also home to many endangered species, which now have an even lesser chance of survival. It is estimated that over 40 species of waterfowl and migratory birds are now threatened. This is directly due to the destruction of the wetlands.

Destruction of the wetlands was also devastating to agriculture and water quality, and many of the Marsh Arabs were forced to move to Iran or became internally displaced in Iraq. In the long term, the drying of the marshes could contribute to climate change in the region.

The marshlands Arabs whose unique way of life had been preserved for over 5,000 years, consist of a number of different Shi'a tribes. Estimates of population size have varied largely. One anthropological study put their number at 400,000 in the 1950s. Economic migration between the 1960s and the 1980s had reduced the population to an estimated 250,000 by 1991. In 1993, Human Rights Watch estimated the rural population of the marshlands to be around 200,000, which took into account the huge numbers of army deserters and political opponents seeking shelter in the region after 1991. Today, there may be as few as 20,000 of the original inhabitants remaining, the rest having fled or migrated to Iran and elsewhere, while an estimated minimum of 100,000 have become internally displaced in Iraq.

In recent times, there had been several plans to restore some of the marshes. But in several instances, the motives behind those plans had been quite suspicious. Even when Western parties laid down such plans, it was clear that they had their eyes on the vast oil reserves of the area. However, with the occupation of Iraq, and the ensuing resistance, it is feared that even such plans are being shelved for the time being till full security is maintained. This looks quite far at present.