PARIS - Six pilot schemes to help the environment of the marshlands of southern Iraq were unveiled on Wednesday, marking a further step forward in rehabilitating the devastated region, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) said.
The sites, in the Thi-Qasr, Basra and Missan governorates, will use environmentally sound but experimental technologies to provide fresh water and sanitation to local people, the UNEP said in a press statement.
The main aim is to restore local reed beds and sandy marshland habitats so that they act as a natural system for filtering water.
The southern Iraqi wetlands, believed by some to be the location of the biblical Garden of Eden, were ravaged under the regime of ousted president Saddam Hussein, who drained the region in order to crush a local rebellion.
They were then put under further pressure by the building of huge dams on the Tigris and Euphrates.
Studies released in 2003 estimated that 93 percent of the area had been wrecked, and that nothing would be left by 2008.
The situation began to be reversed with Saddam's downfall in April 2003, when residents began to breach embankments and open floodgates to restore the flow of water.
UNEP said the six pilot sites are Al-Kirmashiya, Badir Al-Rumaidh, Al-Masahab, Al-Jeweber, Al-Hadam and Al-Sewelmat.
UNEP is channelling 11 million dollars, provided by Japan, to help rehabilitate the marshland and improve the life of its 85,000 people, inheritors of a civilisation that is 5,000 years old.
Wednesday's press release was released on the sidelines of a meeting of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) in New York.
So far, 160 Iraq experts have been trained in wetland management and restoration and a satellite system for monitoring water levels and land use in the region is now up and running, UNEP said.
04/20/2005 17:04 GMT