In Iraq, Drought and Abundance in the Mesopotamian Marshes – The New York Times
On my most recent visit to the Mesopotamian marshes, in March, I arrived at Sayeed Hithams for breakfast. The pandemic had kept me away for more than a year.
The sun was just rising, the sky pink and golden. Hana, Hithams wife, stood smiling near the door to their reed house. Tea is ready, bread is ready, she said. Come on in.
We sat on the worn-out carpet around a glowing kerosene heater, sipping tea and dipping the flat naan Hana had just baked into hot buffalo milk. What took you so long, Emi? Sayeed asked with a tone of reproach. We havent seen you in forever.
Indeed. A year was the longest Id gone without visiting the Mesopotamian marshes since I began documenting the area in late 2016.
At that time, when journalists and photographers were flocking to the north of Iraq, where the battle for Mosul was raging, I took the opposite path and headed south. I was in search of another view of the country, something different from the war Id been covering for the previous year and a half.
It was a moment of real discovery for me one of those few times when you connect with a place, with a people.
The Mesopotamian marshes, a series of wetlands that sit near Iraqs southeast border, feel like an oasis in the middle of the desert which they are. The ruins of the ancient Sumerian cities of Ur, Uruk and Eridu are close at hand. The broader region, known as the cradle of civilization, saw early developments in writing, architecture and complex society.
The marshes are home to a people called the Madan, also known as the Marsh Arabs, who live deep in the wetlands, mostly as buffalo breeders in isolated settlements, a majority of which are reachable only by boat. Others live in small cities on the banks of the Tigris or Euphrates rivers, which feed the marshes.
Many of the Madan left decades ago, when the marshes were ravaged by war, famine and repression.
During the Iran-Iraq war, waged between 1980 and 1988, the wetlands proximity to the Iranian border turned the area into a conflict zone, a theater for bloody battles. Later, in the early 1990s, in the aftermath of a Shiite uprising against his Baath Party, Saddam Hussein intentionally drained the region where many of the Shiite rebels had fled as a punishment and a way to stifle the insurrection.
The marshes turned into a desert for more than a decade, until the United States-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.
By then, damage had already been done. By the early 2000s, less than 10 percent of the areas original wetland existed as a functioning marshland.
Today, after being re-flooded and partially restored, the marshes are once again endangered by climate change, lack of ecological awareness on a local level and, perhaps most dramatically, by the construction of dams in Turkey and Syria and upriver in Iraq.
In 2018, an extremely hot summer followed by a lack of rain caused a serious drought. In some areas, the water level fell by more than three feet.
Thats it, I remember thinking, as the small boat crossed the marsh where corpses of young buffaloes floated in the water. Buffalo breeders like Sayeed Hitham lost about a third of their livestock, and many had to leave when areas turned into a desert. They migrated to neighboring cities or farther still, to the poor suburbs of Karbala, Basra or Baghdad.
But then, a few months later, the water began to rise. People returned. I photographed the renewal, just as Id photographed drought the year before. But it felt then it still feels now like a sword of Damocles hung over the region.
The stakes are high, both ecologically and for the people who live here. If the already-depleted marshes dry up again, the Madan may have no choice but to leave, to cast away from a peaceful enclave into a troubled land.
Still, Ive kept coming back. Over the years, Ive seen drought and abundance, freezing winters and burning summers. Ive seen children born, and watched them grow up. Ive followed Sayeed Hitham and his family as they moved around the marsh, the location of their new home dependent on the water level and each time built out of reeds.
Ive even gotten used to the huge water buffaloes, known locally as jamous, which represent the main source of income for most of the Madan.
The buffaloes scared me at the beginning. But Ive learned to walk through a herd of horns, to let them smell me, to pet the fluffy, friendly calves the ones that try to lick my hand like oversized dogs.
When I outlined my progress to Sayeed, as we wrapped up breakfast, he burst into his wonderful, exuberant laughter. You still know nothing, Emi, he said. You cant even tell the mean jamous in the herd.
Then, serious, and still smiling, he said: Its OK. You have time to learn.
Original post:
In Iraq, Drought and Abundance in the Mesopotamian Marshes - The New York Times
- Iranian officer charged with orchestrating murder of US citizen in Iraq - ABC News - December 22nd, 2024 [December 22nd, 2024]
- Murder and terrorism charges brought against Iranian officer in 2022 killing of American in Iraq - The Associated Press - December 22nd, 2024 [December 22nd, 2024]
- Warfare': A Real-Time Iraq War Combat Film from a Navy SEAL and the Director of 'Civil War' - Military.com - December 22nd, 2024 [December 22nd, 2024]
- BP, Iraq agree on technical terms to redevelop Kirkuk oil fields - Reuters - December 22nd, 2024 [December 22nd, 2024]
- Iraq begins Gulf Cup 26 campaign with a victory over Yemen - Iraqi News - December 22nd, 2024 [December 22nd, 2024]
- Pope Francis reveals two attempts on his life during 2021 visit to Iraq - CNN - December 22nd, 2024 [December 22nd, 2024]
- First look at Warfare brings viewers into tenacity of Iraq War - Military Times - December 22nd, 2024 [December 22nd, 2024]
- Pope reveals he was almost assassinated in Iraq in 2021 - POLITICO Europe - December 22nd, 2024 [December 22nd, 2024]
- Pope Francis reveals he survived two assassination attempts during visit to Iraq - America: The Jesuit Review - December 22nd, 2024 [December 22nd, 2024]
- Ibrahim Al-Sumaidaie, Advisor to Iraqi Prime Minister: Militias in Iraq Should Dismantle and Integrate into the Political System; Our Regime Is in... - December 22nd, 2024 [December 22nd, 2024]
- Pope in autobiography reveals an apparent bombing plot during his 2021 visit to Iraq - The Associated Press - December 22nd, 2024 [December 22nd, 2024]
- Pope Francis reveals he was nearly assassinated during historic Iraq trip - The Catholic Thing - December 22nd, 2024 [December 22nd, 2024]
- Pope Francis reveals he survived two threats to his life in Iraq - Catholic News Agency - December 22nd, 2024 [December 22nd, 2024]
- Suicide bombers 'planned to attack Pope Francis' on visit to Iraq - Sky News - December 22nd, 2024 [December 22nd, 2024]
- First Warfare trailer paints a harrowing picture of Iraq War combat - Task & Purpose - December 22nd, 2024 [December 22nd, 2024]
- Syrian rebel leader urges Iraq to keep Hashd al-Shaabi factions out of Syria - Reuters - December 5th, 2024 [December 5th, 2024]
- Trump selects a former soldier and Iraq War veteran to serve as Army secretary - The Associated Press - December 5th, 2024 [December 5th, 2024]
- Trump picks former soldier and Iraq War veteran to serve as Army secretary - Stars and Stripes - December 5th, 2024 [December 5th, 2024]
- 5,000-year-old artifacts in Iraq hint at mysterious collapse of one of the world's 1st governments - Yahoo! Voices - December 5th, 2024 [December 5th, 2024]
- Iraq PM denies wiretapping allegations as lie of the century - Arab News - December 5th, 2024 [December 5th, 2024]
- 5,000-year-old artifacts in Iraq hint at mysterious collapse of one of the world's 1st governments - Livescience.com - December 5th, 2024 [December 5th, 2024]
- Excavations uncover evidence for the emergence and rejection of the earliest state institutions in Iraq - Phys.org - December 5th, 2024 [December 5th, 2024]
- Leader Of Hay'at Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) Signals Expansion Of Military Campaign To Homs; Assures Iraqi Government That War In Syria Will Not Spill Over... - December 5th, 2024 [December 5th, 2024]
- PMF head: Increased security readiness along Iraq-Syria border - Al Mayadeen English - December 5th, 2024 [December 5th, 2024]
- Trump selects a former soldier and Iraq War veteran to serve as Army secretary - Daily Journal - December 5th, 2024 [December 5th, 2024]
- Deep Dive: Why Trump II may be different for Iran, Iraq - Amwaj.media - December 5th, 2024 [December 5th, 2024]
- Iraq army spox threatens 'military intervention in Syria - The New Arab - December 5th, 2024 [December 5th, 2024]
- Syrian Rebel Leader Asks Iraq To Stay Out Of Conflict After Victory In Hama - The Times of India - December 5th, 2024 [December 5th, 2024]
- Iraqi Cleric Al-Sadr: Iraq Should Not Intervene In Syria - Middle East Media Research Institute - December 5th, 2024 [December 5th, 2024]
- Verdict in Iraq's $2.5bn 'heist of the century' - but where have the rest of the missing billions gone? - The National - December 5th, 2024 [December 5th, 2024]
- Pro-Iranian militias enter Syria from Iraq to aid beleaguered Syrian army - The Times of Israel - December 5th, 2024 [December 5th, 2024]
- 5,000-Year-Old Structures Discovered In Iraq Provide Evidence Of The First-Known Government Collapse In History - All That's Interesting - December 5th, 2024 [December 5th, 2024]
- Iraq Vows Active Role in Syria Amid Escalating Conflict - FingerLakes1.com - December 5th, 2024 [December 5th, 2024]
- Trumps pick for Army secretary served in Iraq and was law school classmate of Vance - Washington Times - December 5th, 2024 [December 5th, 2024]
- Is Trump Going To Turn The Screw On Iran's Key Criminal Accomplice Iraq - OilPrice.com - December 5th, 2024 [December 5th, 2024]
- War hero demands compensation for veterans falsely accused of Iraq atrocities - The Telegraph - November 30th, 2024 [November 30th, 2024]
- Navy intercepts drone apparently launched from Iraq - The Times of Israel - November 30th, 2024 [November 30th, 2024]
- "Iraq ready to respond to any terrorist threats" says Maj. Gen. Rasool - Kurdistan24 - November 30th, 2024 [November 30th, 2024]
- Iraq tries to stem influx of illegal foreign workers - Al-Monitor - November 30th, 2024 [November 30th, 2024]
- BEIT project set to drive decent work and affordable housing in Iraq - ILO - November 30th, 2024 [November 30th, 2024]
- Albares thanks Iraq for its mediation efforts to contain the regional escalation - The Diplomat in Spain - November 30th, 2024 [November 30th, 2024]
- WHO Iraq Gathers National Stakeholders to Develop Country Cooperation Strategy Aligned with Agenda 2030 [EN/AR] - ReliefWeb - November 30th, 2024 [November 30th, 2024]
- Military dog who served in Iraq reunited with former handler after more than 2 years apart - KFOX El Paso - November 30th, 2024 [November 30th, 2024]
- Iraq secures its borders with Syria against terrorist threats - Kurdistan24 - November 30th, 2024 [November 30th, 2024]
- Aim to contribute to building a unified Iraq where peace and development prevail: Head of the Religious Endowments - ina.iq - November 30th, 2024 [November 30th, 2024]
- American Humane Reunites Retired Military Working Dog and Hander who Worked Together in Iraq - American Humane - November 28th, 2024 [November 28th, 2024]
- Trade gap focus in first visit to Spain by Iraq PM - Al-Monitor - November 28th, 2024 [November 28th, 2024]
- Loved ones make annual trip to Arlington Cemetery grave of FDNY firefighter killed in Iraq - New York Daily News - November 28th, 2024 [November 28th, 2024]
- Snchez and Prime Minister of Iraq ask the parties to avoid an escalation in the Middle East - The Diplomat in Spain - November 28th, 2024 [November 28th, 2024]
- Iraq motivated to establish promising partnership with Spain - Iraqi News - November 28th, 2024 [November 28th, 2024]
- Turkish intelligence eliminates top PKK operative in Iraq | Daily Sabah - Daily Sabah - November 28th, 2024 [November 28th, 2024]
- Iraq to resume flights to Beirut next week - Rudaw Media Network - November 28th, 2024 [November 28th, 2024]
- UK and Iraq strike deal to tackle people smuggling and organised crime networks - The National - November 28th, 2024 [November 28th, 2024]
- Pete Hegseths Army unit in Iraq was rocked by a war-crimes case - The Washington Post - November 26th, 2024 [November 26th, 2024]
- Iraq, hacks and the Kingfish: The scandal that could bring down Prime Minister Sudani - Middle East Eye - November 26th, 2024 [November 26th, 2024]
- Jordan reach FIBA Asia Cup 2025 after Saudi Arabia comeback win over Iraq - FIBA - November 26th, 2024 [November 26th, 2024]
- UN in Iraq marks 16 Days of Activism to End Violence Against Women and Girls [EN/AR] - ReliefWeb - November 26th, 2024 [November 26th, 2024]
- Iraq's population grew to 45.4 million according to the first survey in decades - ABC News - November 26th, 2024 [November 26th, 2024]
- A Human Development Journey to the Heart of the Cradle of Civilization, Iraq - World Bank - November 26th, 2024 [November 26th, 2024]
- Why Did Iraq Suspend a $10 Billion Deal With China? - The Diplomat - November 26th, 2024 [November 26th, 2024]
- Alexander Novak paid a working visit to Iraq - - November 26th, 2024 [November 26th, 2024]
- ASIA/IRAQ - Patriarch Sako appeals to all the "heirs" of the Church of the East: "Unity is the only way to face the current... - November 26th, 2024 [November 26th, 2024]
- Iraq blocks IMDb website over 'immoral content' claims - bne IntelliNews - November 26th, 2024 [November 26th, 2024]
- Vacationing in Iraq, mysterious chemical in water, Jeeps downward spiral: Catch up on the days stories - CNN - November 26th, 2024 [November 26th, 2024]
- ADM makes second 2024 sale of U.S. rice to Iraq - Farm Progress - November 26th, 2024 [November 26th, 2024]
- Israeli strikes in Iraq could be imminent, US reportedly warns - JNS.org - November 26th, 2024 [November 26th, 2024]
- USAID commits investment of up to $20 Million with UNICEF to address water scarcity in Iraq and improve water and sanitation services [EN/AR] -... - November 26th, 2024 [November 26th, 2024]
- Will Trump reduce the US military presence in Syria and Iraq? - The New Arab - November 26th, 2024 [November 26th, 2024]
- Iraq bans alcohol in hotels and clubs, bringing country close to near-total ban - The Washington Post - November 26th, 2024 [November 26th, 2024]
- Iraq calls for pressure on Israel to halt possible strikes - The New Arab - November 26th, 2024 [November 26th, 2024]
- Ceremony held commemorating 20th anniversary of Green Bay Marine killed in Iraq - WBAY - November 26th, 2024 [November 26th, 2024]
- Navy veteran of Vietnam, Iraq wars sentenced to 3 years in prison for Capitol riot - WUSA9.com - November 26th, 2024 [November 26th, 2024]
- ILO and Ministry of Youth and Sport Launch Job Search Club National Program in Iraq [EN/AR] - ReliefWeb - November 26th, 2024 [November 26th, 2024]
- Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Russia reaffirm OPEC+ production cuts commitment - Arab News - November 26th, 2024 [November 26th, 2024]
- Iraq braces for most severe cold snap in 14 years - Kurdistan24 - November 26th, 2024 [November 26th, 2024]
- Iraq law could lower a girls age of consent as an adult from 18 to 9: it legalizes child rape - Fox News - November 12th, 2024 [November 12th, 2024]
- Five killed in Turkish drone strikes on PKK members in northern Iraq - Reuters - November 12th, 2024 [November 12th, 2024]
- Yemen missile interception sparks fire near Jerusalem; 4 drones launched from Iraq - The Times of Israel - November 12th, 2024 [November 12th, 2024]
- Drone launched from Iraq shot down before crossing into Israel overnight, IDF says - The Times of Israel - November 12th, 2024 [November 12th, 2024]
- Spy satellite images lead archeologists to the site of a historic battle in Iraq - The Associated Press - November 12th, 2024 [November 12th, 2024]