I have been reading several articles concerning the marshlands in southern Iraq. For years after the 1991 Gulf War, much of Saddam Hussein's industrial machinery was turned toward a massive dam-building project that drained some 90 percent of the southern wetlands where Marsh Arabs have lived for more than 5,000 years, Apart from the human toll of hundreds of thousands of marshland inhabitants being displaced. It was also an ecological catastrophe, destroying an area that many call the cradle of Western civilization, sustained by periodical flooding by the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and also the home to hundreds of fish and bird species.
After Saddam Hussein was forced from power, residents who had not fled the area tore down the dams. And as water began flooding back in (the quality of water flowing into the marsh is higher than expected and the response of wildlife has been swift and positive. Plant life is returning to many areas and some people are resuming a way of life that has endured for thousands of years)
Read more at
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/6998715/http://www.sciencemag.org/
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