The Water is Gone, The Land Is Dry, Desert Wetlands Drained

“I used to swim all around here as a boy . . . now all the water is gone and the land is dry.” —Mahayal Ateia Msaver Although the Ba’athist government of Iraq "had been devising schemes to drain the marshlands for economic purposes since at least the 1950s, systematic drainage efforts began only after an abortive uprising against the government in 1991 and were motivated primarily by political rather than economic concerns. Starting in 1991, in part to facilitate entry into the area by the armed forces, authorities built a series of dams, dikes, and canals aimed at preventing the waters of the Tigris and the Euphrates from flowing into the marshes. The result, less than a decade later, was the destruction of the Middle East’s largest wetland ecosystem."