The Mesopotamian marshlands of the Tigris-Euphrates delta, long regarded as "the cradle of civilisation", have almost vanished, according to a study published today by the UN Environment Programme.
UNEP has described the draining of these marshlands in southern Iraq, which until recently constituted the largest wetland area in the Middle East, as "a major ecological disaster" comparable to the destruction of large tracts of the Amazon rainforest.
Because Iraq's difficult situation over the past decade has limited access to the marshlands, the scale of this disaster has gone virtually unreported. However, using satellite imagery, UNEP has established that 90 per cent of the wetland area has now disappeared.
The study blames the dewatering on "massive drainage works" implemented by President Saddam Hussein in the early 1990s, following the Gulf War, and on the construction upriver on both the Tigris and Euphrates of more than 30 large dams in the past 40 years.
This has had "devastating impacts" for the unique community of Marsh Arabs who have lived in the delta for 5,000 years, heirs to the ancient Sumerians and Babylonians.
It has also been disastrous for migratory water-fowl stopping off there on their way from southern Africa to Siberia.
"The collapse of Marsh Arab society . . . confers a vivid human dimension on this environmental disaster," the UNEP report says.
Around a fifth of the estimated half-million Marsh Arabs are now living in refugee camps in Iran while the rest are "internally displaced" in Iraq.
The impact on its teeming wildlife has been equally devastating, according to the study. An estimated 40 species of water-fowl are at risk, and mammals and fish that only existed in the marshlands are now considered extinct. Coastal fisheries are also threatened.
The Mesopotamian marshlands once covered an area of 15,000 to 20,000 sq km and had long been regarded as one of the most valuable habitats on Earth. Their desiccation is seen to have important implications for the looming global freshwater crisis.
Satellite images provide evidence that the once-extensive marshlands have regressed to desert, with vast stretches covered by crusts of salt.
Only a small section of wetland straddling the Iran-Iraq border remains intact.
"Even this last vestige is rapidly dwindling as its water supply is impounded by new dams . . . By turning off the tap, dams have substantially reduced the water available for downstream ecosystems and eliminated the floodwaters that nourished the marshlands," the report says.
UNEP is calling on both Iraq and Iran to take "bold measures" for the conservation of the remaining trans-boundary marshes before it is too late. These would include re-evaluating water engineering works to give the marshlands "a new lease of life".
It is also proposing that all countries drawing water from the Tigris and Euphrates, including Syria and Turkey, adopt an integrated river basin approach to manage decreasing water resources sustainably and reverse negative environmental trends in the region.
"To continue in present ways would spell wholesale ecological demise for lower Mesopotamia and ultimately undermine the foundation of life for future generations," according to UNEP.