$15 million for Nasiriya marshes

 

By Basem al-Rikabi

 

Azzaman, 2004-09-17

 

The Italian government has earmarked $15 million to revive part of the marshes in Nasiriya which once covered are area of 3,500 square kilometers, according to a provincial official.

 

The official, Nidaa al-Jibouri, head of the Construction Planning Directorate in the Province of Dhi Qar, said two committees have been formed on how to spend the money.

 

The city of Nasiriya, 250 kilometers south of Baghdad, is the capital of the province.

 

“The Iraqi Ministry of Irrigation and the Italian Ministry of Environment will coordinate on the projects that will be implemented in the marshes,” al-Jibouri said.

 

She said the donation by Italy was one of the largest sums allocated so far to revive the southern wetlands which former President Saddam Hussein had turned into a waste land.

 

The region surrounding Nasiriya was once compared to the “Paradise of Aden” as it included one of the biggest contiguous wetland habitats in the Middle East.

 

Nasiriya had the largest lake in the lower Euphrates, approximately 120 km long and up to 25 km wide.

 

Saddam dried the lake and turned it into desert, forcing tens of thousands of marsh Arabs to flee.

 

Al-Jibouri said about 10,000 families have returned to their ancestral land when the flood gates and water sluices Saddam Hussein had erected to dry the marshes were removed.

 

Nasiriya bore the brunt of Saddam Hussein’s wars and the more than a decade of tough U.N. trade sanctions.

 

Its nearly 600,000 people are among the most impoverished in Iraq.

 

Italian troops, as part of the US-multinational forces, are stationed in Dhi Qar.

 

Al-Jibouri said the population of Nasiriya and particularly the returning marsh Arabs are looking forward to “a new reality on the ground after years of neglect.”

 

Italy is also involved in other reconstruction projects in Dhi Qar.

 

According to Salah Hassan, head of the province’s Consultative Council, Nasiriya has signed a protocol with Rome under which Italy pledges to undertake more reconstruction projects, hold training seminars and consolidate “the democratic process.”