We can save Iraq's 'Garden of Eden'
23/04/2013 20:59
- 23 April 2013 by Fred Pearce
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Engineer Azzam Alwash is intent on restoring the fabled Mesopotamian marshes in southern Iraq that Saddam Hussein tried to wreck. Some say the marshes of southern Iraq are the origin of the Garden of Eden story. Why did Saddam Hussein drain them? He said it was to make dry land for agriculture. He dug canals and diverted the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, causing 90 per cent of the marshes to dry out. But really, he saw the Marsh Arabs who lived there, fishing, cutting reeds and tending water buffalo, as opponents. He couldn't send in heavy tanks to flush them out. Drains worked better. [Read more] ...