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Iraq
ID49b earmarked for Missan marshes
2010-12-31
MISSAN / Aswat al-Iraq: The Missan Provincial Council allocated more than 49 billion Iraqi dinars for the development of the province's marshlands within appropriations reserved for the reconstruction of this area for the year 2011, a local official said on Thursday.

Jasseb Kadhem Himdan, the chairman of the council's marshes development committee, pointed out that the ministry, during 2010, appropriated the sum of 70 billion dinars to refurbish the Missan wetlands, adding some 178 projects were carried out in the spheres of housing, agriculture, water resources, education, roads, electricity, water, sanitary sewage, health, communications and social development.

The marshes in southern Iraq, the largest and oldest in the world, play a key environmental role in housing of indigenous and migrant birds. They stand over 15,000-25,000 kilometers.

With a population of about 500,000 people, the marshlands shrank by one-tenth during the former regime's time after all river courses were altered and dams were built to cut them into parts, a matter that prompted most of their inhabitants to emigrate.
One of the great and barely recognized stories of the reconstruction of Iraq is the restoration of the marsh lands. Saddam try to destroy the marshes to punish the people who lived there, and in doing so he created an ecological and environmental catastrophe. The good people of Iraq, with American and British assistance, have been restoring these marshes since their liberation. Not that you'll get the progressive types to care, of course.
One of our first moves after the 2003 invasion was to re-open the spigots feeding water into the marshlands. While there were concerns about pollution, it was amazing how quickly the flora and fauna started to return.
Posted by:Steve White

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