It was not coincidental that agriculture first developed in the naturally renewable
fertility of the grasslands surrounding the marshes. What the Sumerians did was invent
an ingenious irrigation system which their Marsh Arabs inheritors continued using.
Following the peak of the floods, they broadcast seeds on the higher lands that first
start emerging as the floodwaters recede. These higher lands get covered twice a day
as a result of the tidal actions of the Gulf that slows the flow in the Tigris and
Euphrates, causing a “backup” of the water. The seeds thus get irrigated automatically
without having to open canals or pump water. As the seedlings grow, however, the
water recedes too far to allow for irrigation, and thus the seedlings are transplanted
from the higher land into the low lying fields/grasslands. The irrigation system
continues to provide water twice a day well into the early days of summer. By the time
the floodwaters have receded, the roots of the seedling would tap into the groundwater
and are in no need of the hard labor of irrigation.
In this way, the Sumerian culture gave us sustainable agriculture, which allowed
settlements and eventually cities to be built, leading to laws and writing and all the
trappings of culture. It is without irony that the marshes can be called the cradle of
Western civilization.
Empires came and went, but the Marsh Arabs’ lifestyle did not change much. The
rhythms of life in the marshes were predictable. Every now and then, the floods would
cause rivers to change course and communities had to move when water is cut off but
in essence, at the micro level, the fabric of society stood the test of time.
Then, in 1991 , following the defeat of Saddam in Kuwait, the people of Iraq
rebelled. The insurgence, however, was short lived as the cities were taken over by the
Iraqi army, which was allowed to crush the rebels under the watchful eyes of the
Western alliance. The remnants of the insurgency sought refuge in the marshes to hide
from the wrath of the army and of Saddam. This was not a new phenomenon. The
history of Iraq is filled with stories of rebels using the marshes as a place to hide. After
all, life in the marshes was relatively easy from the natural abundance of water and
food, but more importantly, the marshes protected the individuals and the small
bands from the organized armies of whoever was controlling the empire at any given
time in history.
In 1992 , we began hearing rumours that the marshes were being drained. It was hard
to believe that it is possible to drain 12 , 000 square kilometers but sure enough by 1997 ,
satellite pictures showed with certainty that the marshes were being dried and only 700
square kilometers of marshes shared between Iraq and Iran remained. It turns out that
at a time when Iraq was not allowed to sell a single drop of oil officially, Saddam’s
regime literally used every piece of heavy equipment available in Iraq in a massive
engineering project designed to direct the waters of the Tigris and Euphrates away from
the marshes depriving them of their source of life. Six major canals were excavated and
thousands of kilometers of embankments, the dirt of which had to be trucked in, were
built up to increase the flow capacity of the rivers and tributaries of the Tigris and
Euphrates. From the engineering point of view, it was a massive project that showed
the versatility of the engineers of the Iraqi ministry of water resources. In less than seven
years, only a fraction remained. In place of the unique water-world of the marshes was
a salt-encrusted, barren moonscape incapable of supporting life. Deprived of their
livelihood, the Marsh Arabs migrated en masse from the marshes. Those that wanted
to stay were brought into compounds and became dependent on the government for
–– Postscript ––