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IRAQ-ENVIRONMENT: Eden in the Line of Fire
By María Amparo Lasso - Tierramérica*
MEXICO CITY, Apr 3 (IPS) - A recurring nightmare is troubling
environmentalists worldwide: the firepower being used in the
second Gulf War is devastating what little is left of the wetlands
of Mesopotamia, a place that many believe was the setting of the
Bible's Garden of Eden.
Home to millions of birds, the marshes of what is modern-day
Iraq are among the most important in the Middle East. As a
regional oasis, these marshlands for centuries provided fertile
land and clean water for millions of people.
”I hope the images of the environmental catastrophe of the
first Gulf War are not repeated in 2003,” ornithologist Mike Evans
told Tierramérica, recalling how he saw thousands of aquatic birds
die after Iraqi troops set fire to more than 600 oil wells as they
withdrew from Kuwait in 1991.
A photo of a little bird, a grebe, blackened by petroleum was
seen by people around the world at the time, and became a symbol
of one of the worst oil spills in history.
Such oil disasters might not happen this time around, but
military experts say it is still relatively early in the war.
The marshlands of Mesopotamia (Al Ahwar, in Arabic), where
civilizations of the Babylonians and Sumerians flourished, are
today extremely fragile - and they are in the line of fire in the
U.S.-led war in Iraq.
The ecosystem forms part of the Tigris and Euphrates river
basin, which provides sustenance to Iraq, Turkey, Syria and Iran.
But the heart of the wetlands lies in southern Iraq, along the
border with Iran and near big cities like Basra, which is
currently suffering a profound humanitarian crisis, following the
overwhelming attack launched by the United States and Britain on
Mar 20.
There, too, the first oil well fires of this war burned. Around
a dozen total, but now apparently they have been brought under
control.
The more than 1,600 oil wells in Iraq represent a time bomb for
the marshes, as well as the potential contamination of the
ecosystem by the use of conventional weapons as well as weapons of
mass destruction, the passage of hundreds of war vehicles through
the surrounding desert and the mass mobilisation of refugees.
But the bulk of the damage has already been done. Thrashed by
the impact of human activities over the years, just seven percent
of the original extension of the marshlands remain, around 20,000
square km.
When Hassan Partow visited the area in 2002, along the Iran-
Iraq border, he was heartbroken. Where recently one of the most
impressive natural spectacles had been recorded - millions of
exotic migratory birds filling the skies - he found a desert
landscape, one that had been depopulated and was now highly
militarised.
Partow is a member of a team of specialists from the United
Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) that in the days after the
beginning of the U.S.-led attacks issued a new alert about the
tragic disappearance of 93 percent of Mesopotamia's wetlands since
1970.
”It is incredible to think that an ecosystem that took
millennia to be formed could be destroyed in so few years,” Partow
told Tierramérica.
This fast pace of destruction has one main cause: the ambitious
ongoing water and drainage projects of Iraq and its neighbours
that share the river basin, particularly Turkey, which has built
30 dams.
But the series of armed conflicts in the area (the Iran-Iraq
War from 1980 to 1988 and the 1991 Gulf War) have also played a
part. Explosive mines were placed throughout the watershed, which
sustains a half-million Ma'dan, the original inhabitants of the
marshlands, and the habitat of numerous plant and animal species,
particularly birds, some of which have already become extinct.
UNEP says that if urgent action is not taken, the wetlands of
Mesopotamia could disappear completely within five years.
Wetlands destruction ”is the most serious environmental problem
in the area today, both in terms of biology and in the
population's access to safe water. In the Middle East, water is
more important than oil,” Jonathan Lash, president of the
Washington-based World Resources Institute (WRI), said in a
conversation with Tierramérica.
Until recently, the marshes sustained the region's multi-
million-dollar freshwater shellfish industry and supplied 60
percent of the Iraqi freshwater fish market.
The thousands of ducks and geese that filled local markets - a
crucial source of protein for Iraqis since the post-Gulf War
embargo began - also came from those marshlands.
Wetlands also served to purify the waters of the Tigris and
Euphrates, which flow into the Persian Gulf, a body of water that
is renewed by currents from the Indian Ocean only every three to
five years.
The destruction of the marshes, say experts, may also affect
the region's climate, with grave consequences for the habitat of
nearly 400 bird species.
Although no species has been declared globally extinct, at
least three of incomparable beauty have disappeared from Iraq: the
sacred ibis, the African anhinga and the goliath heron.
Ornithologist Evans, of the Britain-based non-governmental
BirdLife International, says experts are worried about several
species, particularly the aquatic birds, ”because they are more
vulnerable to chemical and oil spills than land birds.”
At least eight percent of Iraq should be declared a protected
area for birds, says BirdLife International.
Wetlands devastation has also hurt the arable lands of southern
Iraq. The idyllic oasis inhabited by the Ma'dan during the past
5,000 years has collapsed. Left landless and caught in the
crossfire, the descendants of the Sumerians have had to move
elsewhere. Of the 95,000 refugees displaced from their homes from
1991 to 1993, 40,000 were Ma'dan.
Today, many live in misery in encampments in Iran or in Iraq's
cities.
With or without the direct effects of the current war, a flow
of water from reservoirs in Iran and Iraq would be needed in the
short term to restore the wetlands, says UNEP's Partow.
However, only an integrated management plan that involves Iran,
Iraq, Turkey and Syria could prevent the extinction of the area's
marshes, he adds.
Efforts of the past decades were in vain. Iraq has failed to
sign important international agreements like the 1971 Convention
on Wetlands (signed in Ramsar, Iran) and the 1992 Convention on
Biological Diversity. Baghdad has also refused field studies of
the area, meaning that the existing research is based largely on
satellite images.
”In 1994, when we drew up f the first report on wetlands, we
tried to involve Iraqi scientists, but it was not possible. We
must re-establish dialogue to achieve the equitable use of the
river basin,” Jean-Yves Pirot, head of the wetlands and water
resources division of the Worldwide Fund for Nature, told
Tierramérica.
UNEP will head up environmental assessments in post-war Iraq.
But nobody dares hope that the environmental question will be at
the centre of the post-war debate.
”I know people at USAID (U.S. Agency for International
Development) and the State Department who are concerned about
these issues, but whether they will be given top priority, that is
something I can't predict,” said WRI president Lash.
* Tierramérica is a specialised news service
(www.tierramerica.net) produced by IPS with the backing of the
United Nations Development Programme and the United Nations
Environment Programme.
(María Amparo Lasso is editorial director of Tierramérica.)
(END/2003)
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