Iraq
Dozens of rotting fish float on the surface of polluted marshes in southern Iraq. File photo: AFP
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The Mesopotamian Marshes are set to be declared as “disaster-stricken areas,” a state-owned newspaper reported on Monday as drought takes its toll on the wetlands turning them into a barren desert and threatening them with extinction.
Iraq’s southern Dhi Qar province is expected to make the announcement “in the coming hours,” Ghassan al-Khafaji, advisor to the province’s governor was cited as saying by al-Sabah.
"This comes due to the drought that hit it and turned green meadows into a barren desert, as the efforts of local authorities and international organizations did not succeed in saving it," Khafaji said.
The swamplands, also known as the Mesopotamian Marshes and are one of the world's largest inland deltas situated between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.
Iraq's troubled marshlands were subject to a massive drainage campaign by former dictator Saddam Hussein in 1991, who ordered their drainage as punishment for local communities who were protecting insurgents he sought to hunt down.
Khafaji called for raising the water levels in the marches "to the internationally required level" as per pledges made by Iraq and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) before their inclusion as a World Heritage site.
The marshes were added to the list of UNESCO World Heritage sites in 2016 due to their biodiversity and ancient history.
Iraq is the fifth-most vulnerable nation in the world to the effects of climate change, including water and food insecurity, according to the UN.
The devastating effects of climate change are exacerbated by Turkish and Iranian damming upstream of rivers that flow into Iraq, cutting off the drought-ridden nation from much-needed water relief.
Turkey on Saturday said it will increase its water flow downstream into Iraq.
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