The effect of marsh draining on biodiversity

Abstract

"The marsh represents a rare natural environment of its kind for a number of reasons. First, the marshes were the cradle of the Sumerian civilization and an environment that embraces a unique biodiversity. Its geography and vast area, which is equivalent to the size of a country like Lebanon, made it a resting place and provided food and reproduction for migratory birds. It is worthy of being included in the World Heritage List as one of the treasures of the world that must be preserved, but unfortunately, the Iraqi marshes have not been subjected throughout history to extensive and systematic drying operations, which reached 95% of their total area, as they were exposed to during the era of the previous dictatorial regime in the nineties of last century, which led to the emergence of a number of environmental problems that collectively led to the disruption of natural ecological balance through the loss of the ability to achieve the environmental balance and causing biological diversity damage . This is as a result of the lack of incoming water resources and the high percentage of salinity and pollution, which caused the death of huge numbers of wildlife and aquatic life, as well as the extinction of large numbers of them, causing a mass migration of the population of those areas to other areas that provide them with a minimum standard of decent living after they lost their main sources of livelihood represented by fishing and raising animals. The paper aims to present a study on the impact of the widespread and systematic drying stages that began after the Iran-Iraq war in the eighties of last century and culminated in the nineties, bringing the percentage of the remaining water from the marshes to 5% in 2002, and the extent of its impact on the destruction of the environment and biodiversity, which includes humans and animals, as well as migratory birds from Siberia to the Indian subcontinent, which lost their habitats and places for laying eggs and breeding. It will also present a number of solutions that will help reduce the environmental degradation that the marshes have been exposed to."