Eden Restored (Iraq's Marsh Arabs)

The Guardian (UK) ^ | 11-23-2007 | Stuart Coles

[blam]

Eden restored

An ambitious plan for the restoration of wetlands in Iraq will combine the ancient way of life of the returning Marsh Arab people with pioneering green technology. Stuart Coles reports

Guardian Unlimited
Friday November 23 2007

The marshlands restoration project covers an area of some 40,000 square miles. Photograph: Jonathan Tait-Harris

Saddam Hussein had scant regard for the largest wetlands in the Middle East, which teem with unique wildlife like the smooth-coated otter, Mesopotamian deer and Basra reed warbler. He saw them merely as a haven for hiding rebels and deserters from the Iran-Iraq War, and in the early 1990s, he ordered them to be drained.

By 2003, more than 90% of the Mesopotamian wetlands, dubbed the Garden of Eden, had been lost, and reduced to barren salt pans. Experts feared that the region, home to an ancient people considered the heirs of the Babylonians and Sumerians, would vanish by 2008.

Now, with a huge multibillion dollar restoration underway, funded by the US, Canadian and Italian governments and the United Nations environment programme (UNEP) many Ma'dan (Marsh Arabs) are returning to a life that has changed little in 5,000 years.

But, after years of urban exile, they are now accustomed to modern life's comforts, such as electricity, television, air-conditioning and wireless internet.

To meet old and these newly acquired needs, a two-and-a half-year feasibility study has produced a vision for "New Eden" – a bold masterplan which aims for an "intersection between green technologies and traditional environmental knowledge."

Iraq architects and designers have drawn up villages of mudhif – traditional reed houses, but which now have partitioned rooms, kitchens and bathrooms and use sewage collection systems instead of dumping waste.

[P-40]

Bush’s fault!

[blam]

GGG Ping.

When Saddam drained the swamps, this asteroid impact site was discovered.

n

Disaster That Struck The Ancients

[rellimpank]

--To meet old and these newly acquired needs, a two-and-a half-year feasibility study has produced a vision for "New Eden" – a bold masterplan which aims for an "intersection between green technologies and traditional environmental knowledge." --

yeah--I bet it's a "bold masterplan" alright--it'll soak up money in an unbelievable fashion--

[SolidWood]

I am positively surprised the leftist Guardian (which carried an eulogy for Saddam) is carrying this positive story.

[P-40]

I wonder what time it will be on the news here?

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

["Now, with a huge multibillion dollar restoration underway, funded by the US, Canadian and Italian governments and the United Nations environment programme (UNEP) many Ma'dan (Marsh Arabs) are returning to a life that has changed little in 5,000 years....But, after years of urban exile, they are now accustomed to modern life's comforts, such as electricity, television, air-conditioning and wireless internet."]

I'm so pleased to find that some of the $45,000 in federal taxes I paid this year are going to such a good cause -- rebuilding an ancient swamp in a region where the average inhabitant would happily cut off my head if I were found walking their streets, and providing said inhabitants with electricity, television, air-conditioning and wireless internet.

[piano-woman]

The twelfth of never

[blam]

We’ve definately lost control of our government.

[antinomian]

When I read a story about architects designing mud huts for people to move back into words just fail me.

[P-40]

This area is actually pretty friendly to the U.S. and one of our first actions on taking Iraq was to open up the dams that were diverting the water from the region. We actually had to repair some dams that locals were trying to tear down too soon.

This site has a good satellite photo comparison of the devastation the region suffered.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/2807821.stm

[blam]

BBC

[Tailback]

How wonderful.

Mosquitoe infested swamps to spread Malaria, West Nile virus, and all the other wonderful tropical diseases.

[P-40]

Thanks! I was digging around trying to find my notes on how to post images. It has been awhile since I last did so.

It is fun to bring this up to the Global Warming alarmists as an example of a large-scale positive environmental thing this administration has done. :)

[BerryDingle]

“Iraq architects and designers have drawn up villages of mudhif – traditional reed houses, but which now have partitioned rooms, kitchens and bathrooms and use sewage collection systems instead of dumping waste.”

The achitects and designers have the right idea. If they think like “The swimmer” Kennedy and “big digs”, billions will be pumped in and the project will never, ever be finished. Also similar to the New Orleans levees.

[1066AD]

From Wikipedia: " .. account of their trip appears in A Reed Shaken By The Wind, later published under the title People of the Reeds."

Author Gavin Maxwell. Excellent read, as are most of his books. I particularly remember his account of a boar hunt in the reeds and how dangerous it could be.

[stboz]

Anybody see Boudreaux ‘roun’ here?

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

This region, with it’s ancient history traceable to the Sumerian civilization in Eridu over 6,000 years ago, is surely fascinating. And preserving and studying it’s archaeological remnants is quite important. I’m just trying to find where it is stated in my copies of the Declaration of Independence and Constitution of the United States of America that I am responsible to pay for recovering an Iraqi swamp and upgrading the lifestyle of its inhabitants by a factor of ten centuries.

[ovrtaxt]

You know the blue crab joke?

[Riptides]

Sounds like a multi-billion dollar waste of money to me.