Monday, February 21, 2005

Iraq's marshlands show renewed signs of life

Quote:

Richardson told New Scientist that maintaining the Al-Hawizeh marsh will crucial to reseeding other areas of the marshland. He says it would be impossible to restore the marshlands entirely but thinks 30% could be salvaged. "The ecological consequences of not restoring the marshland would be enormous," he warns... Lush wetlands once covered 15,000 square kilometres of southern Iraq, between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers... But more than 90% of the area was destroyed in the 1990s by the diversion of water for agricultural irrigation, as well as deliberate draining ordered by Saddam Hussein in retaliation for the Marsh Arab's uprising after the first Gulf War... But the scientists remain concerned that indiscriminate reflooding could do more harm than good and may cause lasting environmental damage. For example, areas where there is no outlet for the water are becoming increasingly saline, through evaporation of the water. This makes them inhospitable to plant and animal life.

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