Watering Eden

Yet the documents uncovered after Iraq lost the 1991 conflict combined with the speed with which the eight canals, "rivers," and levees were built leads many outside analysts to conclude that the regime was engaging in the wholesale destruction of the marshes to exact retribution for the failed rebellion.

"The evidence is pretty clear that Saddam drained the marshes solely for the purpose of destroying the Marsh Arabs," says Joseph Dellapenna, a Villanova University law professor who specializes in international water issues.

The Marsh Arabs, he says, were the targets of genocide, thus adding strong legal and moral imperatives to efforts to aid them - including restoring the marshlands to the extent possible.

Some advocates of marshland restoration pin their hopes on the lessons gleaned from projects such as CALFED, which seeks to restore the ecology of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta in California, while ensuring adequate supplies of fresh water for irrigation and drinking in parched regions of the state.

One of those lessons is the importance of working with the local people, who may have different agendas for the same gallon of water, says Michelle Stevens, project manager for Eden Again. She notes that her group has been working with the Iraq Foundation and with expatriate Marsh Arabs who have settled in the US. ISTAR also has embraced the idea, collaborating with AMAR International Charitable Foundation, based in London, which has been aiding the Marsh Arab refugees in Iran since 1991.

One of the first steps in any restoration effort will be to update information on conditions in the region - ranging from the levels of poisons and pollutants in the water to the composition of the saline soils that have replaced much of the area that marshes covered.

Information on plants and wildlife also is woefully out of date. "We have no data from 1980 on" detailing bird populations, Dr. Stevens says. The group has had to rely on research-expedition reports from as far back as 1915 to piece together a picture of the marshes' "original" look.

Once that information is updated, researchers say they then can use computer simulations to test various approaches to restoration and, if necessary, perform ecological triage if it looks as if some former marshlands are beyond restoration.

In the long run, however, any attempt to restore the marshes will require international cooperation over water allocations in a region where water is more critical to long-term development than oil.

The vast majority of water flowing through Iraq's two major rivers comes from somewhere else, explains Thomas Naff, a professor emeritus of Middle Eastern History at the University of Pennsylvania and a member of ISTAR's group. He notes that 84 percent of the water flowing through the Euphrates comes from Turkey, while 13 percent comes from Syria. The Tigris is fed by tributaries flowing from Turkey, Iran, and Iraq.

Thus, dam projects in Turkey and, to a lesser extent, in Syria play a crucial role in what Iraq ultimately receives. The 800-pound gorilla in the hydrological arena is Turkey's Southeast Anatolia Project. Among its elements: 15 huge dams, 14 hydroelectric stations, and 19 irrigation projects - all feeding off the Tigris and Euphrates. In 1990, Turkey filled its Ataturk Dam, the largest of the project's dams, stopping its overwhelming share of the Euphrates's flow for 29 days.

And while Turkey and Syria have worked out an uneasy pact over water allocations, "Turkey has not had any real negotiations with Iraq for more than a decade," Dr. Dellapenna says. In effect, the countries will have to start from scratch to negotiate basin-wide allocation rights, he adds.

"Given the present condition of the marshes, the one marsh that is capable of resuscitation is Al Hawizeh Marsh," which straddles the Iran-Iraq border, Dr. Naff says. If time weren't so pressing, it might be possible to revive others, he continues, but to do so would require dismantling dams and other engineered structures, substantially increasing the cost of recovery at a time when the country has more pressing needs.

In the end, the best the Marsh Arabs can hope for, some experts say, may be to preserve as much of Al Hawizeh as possible, allowing them to establish an international wildlife reserve and encourage ecotourism.

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