'Water is life': unexpected rainfall revives Iraq's marshlands
This time last year, most of Iraq’s historic marshlands were
dry, desiccated by upstream damming and a chronic lack of rainfall.
Now, local farmers are counting their blessings after
unexpected heavy rainfall at the end of 2018 caused the dams to overflow by
early January and water came gushing back to the wetlands in southeastern Iraq.
For Yunus Khalil, a farmer raising water buffalo in the
central marsh, the lack of water meant he had to sell most of his herd at a
loss last year.
“We were terrified the water wouldn’t come back,” Khalil
said. “It would’ve been the end for us.”
The marshes, thought to be the biblical Garden of Eden and
named a UNESCO world heritage site in 2016, are experiencing their highest
water levels since they were reclaimed in 2003, said Jassim al-Asadi, southern
director of local NGO Nature Iraq and a native of the marshlands, which stretch
to the Iran border.
“God knows how much we suffered last year,” Khalil said. “He
protected us.”
Saddam Hussein accused the area’s inhabitants, the Marsh
Arabs, of treachery during the 1980-1988 war with Iran and later drained the
marshes – which before then had stretched across more than 3,700 square miles
(9,583 sq km) – to flush out rebels.
Many residents fled, but after Saddam’s overthrow in 2003,
parts of the marshland were reflooded and around 250,000 Marsh Arabs have
cautiously trickled back.
Many had moved to farmland in nearby provinces, or went to
live in exile in Iran. Their years away brought a change to the vibrant local
culture, residents say, and more conservative norms, particularly regarding the
role of women who have long worked alongside men in the marshes.
“You used to hear women singing as they pushed their boats
through the marshes at dawn,” said Taher Mehsin, a fishermen in his late 60s.
“Now, some of the men won’t let their women out of the house.”
NEW PROBLEMS
The area has been home to the Marsh Arabs for millennia, and
water is essential to maintaining their way of life.
Though many were eager to return home after two decades
away, life in the marshes is tough and revolves around fishing and raising
water buffalo. The few schools and government-run health clinics are miles away
from the open water, where many people live without electricity.
Residents have to make daily trips on long wooden boats to
buy bottled water for themselves and their families – as the surrounding waters
are too salty to drink.
Years of low water levels have caused other problems,
including less tall grass for the buffalo to graze on, and a drop in the
variety of fish.
The local carp, previously local fishermen’s best seller,
hasn’t been seen in the waters here all year. Instead, the fishermen and women
now catch just one type of small fish which most don’t recall having seen until
recently.
After casting their nets the previous night, they haul their
take at dawn to local buyers, who are currently paying around $2.50 (3,000
dinars) a kilo after haggling – a 50 percent drop in price compared to 2017.
“What else can we do?” said Mehsin as he pushed his boat out
from the shore, having netted $10 (12,000 Iraqi dinars) for his day’s take.
“Water is life here. Fish and animals can’t live without it,
and neither can we.”