Restoring the Garden of Eden: Negative Impacts by Ali Abdul Zahra Douabul and Sama Sameer AlMaarofi

Widely known as the “Garden of Eden”, the extensive Mesopotamian Marshes in Iraq once teemed with life. The marshes were the source of the Shatt Al Arab River and provided fresh water and aquatic resources to many communities downstream. Almost half a century of poor management and intentional drainage by military campaigns, government diversion and irrigation usage have resulted in a substantial deterioration of water quality and subsequent loss of wildlife and habitat. With good intentions, inundation efforts were implemented and additional measures are planned by the Iraqi government to regulate water flow; however decisions have not been based on sufficient scientific data and the complex marshland interactions have not been fully understood. A common misconception is that salinity increases have resulted from Arabian Gulf salt intrusions. Field studies conducted through the Marine Science Centre at the University of Basrah (Iraq) investigated various environmental parameters pertaining to hydrology, water quality, ecology and sedimentology between 2004 and 2013 within the Shatt Al-Arab. The data highlights the integral role of the marshes in maintaining water quality in the Shatt Al-Arab and that the marshes are the main source of salt upstream of the Shatt Al-Arab.