Iraq, Iran to discuss how to revitalize joint marshlands

 

Azzaman, July 14, 2005

 

Minister of Water Resources Abdulatif Rashid is to fly to Iran to see what the two countries can do to revitalize joint marshlands.

 

The Huwaiza marsh, perhaps the only remaining wetland the former leader Saddam Hussein failed to dry, straddles the borders of the two countries.

 

The marsh escaped Saddam Hussein’s massive draining campaigns of southern wetlands because it received its water from rivers originating in Iran.

 

Rashid said he would meet his Iranian counterpart “to discuss water issues particularly the joint Huwaiza marsh.”

 

The largest portion of the 3,500 sq. km. Huwaiza lies in Iraqi territory with Iran having access only to 1,150 sq. km.

 

“We are going to review policies on how to preserve the marshes, protect them and revive them particularly the wetlands we share,” Rashid said.

 

Rashid said he would ask the Iranians to brief him on their future irrigation projects with a bearing on Huwaiza.

 

“We need to boost cooperation in areas of irrigation that are of benefit to the peoples of both countries,’ he said.

 

Saddam Hussein had devastated the southern marshlands which relied for their water on the rivers Tigris and Euphrates.

 

But there are signs that the marshlands are being partially revitalized as the sluices and dams Saddam had constructed to drain them were destroyed shortly after his downfall.

 

Saddam’s extensive draining of the wetlands was in part to punish native marsh Arabs who opposed his rule.

 

Latest investigations by the ministry indicate that up to 30% of the former wetlands have been restored with the quality of the water flowing into them improving steadily.