干上がる「エデンの園」　イラク・メソポタミア湿地帯

【フワイザ湿原ＡＦＰ＝時事】イラク南部のメソポタミア湿地帯は、旧約聖書の「エデンの園」があったとされるが、この肥沃（ひよく）な土地が干上がっている。３年にわたる干ばつと少雨、そして隣国トルコやイランを源流とする河川の水量減少が原因だ。（写真は干上がったイラク南部チバイッシュ湿原に残されたボートに立つ子どもたち）
　チグリス川とユーフラテス川に挟まれた地域は、生物多様性と考古学遺跡の両面から、２０１６年には国連教育科学文化機関（ユネスコ）の世界遺産にも登録された。
　オランダの平和団体ＰＡＸが行った衛星データに基づく評価によると、２０２０年８月から今月までの２年間で、フワイザ湿原やチバイッシュ湿原などイラク南部の湿地帯の４６％で地表付近の水が完全になくなった。さらに４１％で水位や湿度の低下がみられた。
　国連食糧農業機関（ＦＡＯ）駐イラク事務所は、湿原地帯はイラクで最も貧しい地域の一つで、６０００世帯以上が壊滅的な被害を受け、「生活のための唯一無二の資産である水牛を失っている」と指摘した。
　イラクの水管理当局の責任者は、さまざまな対策を講じているが、５０度を超える気温の中で「蒸発量を補うことは不可能だ」と述べた。
　「隣国イランからフワイザ湿原に流入していた主要河川は１年以上完全に干上がっている」と説明。またイラクの農地と湿原地域の水需要は半分しか満たされていないことを認め、当局は貯水量を注視し、飲料水などを最優先にした上で、水の多目的使用を続けられるよう努力していると述べた。
　チバイッシュ湿原に住むアリ・ジャワドさん（２０）は、水を求めて数十世帯が集落から出て行ったと話す。
　「以前は湿原に来ると、緑があり、水があり、心が安らいでいた」が、「今は砂漠のようです」。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2022/08/22-11:38）

To feed and cool his buffaloes, Hashem Gassed must cross 10 kilometres (six miles) of sunburnt land in southern Iraq, where drought is devastating swathes of the mythical Mesopotamian Marshes.
The reputed home of the biblical Garden of Eden, Iraq's swamplands have been battered by three years of drought and low rainfall, as well as reduced water flows along rivers and tributaries originating in neighbouring Turkey and Iran.
Vast expanses of the once lush Huwaizah Marshes, straddling the border with Iran, have been baked dry, their vegetation yellowing. Stretches of the Chibayish Marshes, which are popular with tourists, are suffering the same fate.
The marshes are our livelihood -- we used to fish here and our livestock could graze and drink, said Gassed, 35, from a hamlet near Huwaizah.
Southern Iraq's marshlands were inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2016, both for their biodiversity and their ancient history.
But now, beds of dry streams snake around the once verdant wetlands, and the area's Um al-Naaj lake has been reduced to puddles of muddy water among largely dry ground.
Like his father before him, Gassed raises buffaloes, but only five of the family's around 30 animals are left.
The others died or were sold as the family struggles to make ends meet.
Family members watch carefully over those that remain, fearful that the weak, underfed beasts might fall in the mud and die.
We have been protesting for more than two years and no one is listening, Gassed said.
We are at a loss where to go. Our lives are over.
- 'No more fish' -
Nestled between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, the Mesopotamian Marshes suffered under the former dictator Saddam Hussein, who ordered that they be drained in 1991 as punishment for communities protecting insurgents, and to hunt them down.
The wetlands have sporadically gone through years of harsh drought in the past, before being revived by good rainy seasons.
But between August 2020 and this month, 46 percent of the swamplands of southern Iraq, including Huwaizah and Chibayish, suffered total surface water loss, according to Dutch peace-building organisation PAX.
Another 41 percent of marsh areas suffered from reduced water levels and wetness, according to the organisation, which used satellite data to make the assessment.
The UN's Food and Agriculture Organization in Iraq said the marshes were one of the poorest regions in Iraq and one of the most affected by the climate change, warning of unprecedented low water levels.
It noted the disastrous impact on more than 6,000 families who are losing their buffaloes, their unique living asset.
Biodiversity is also at risk.
The swamplands provide a home for numerous populations of threatened species, and are an important stopping point for around 200 species of migratory water birds, according to UNESCO.
Environmental activist Ahmed Saleh Neema said there were no more fish, wild boar or even a subspecies of smooth-coated otter in the marshes.
- 'Like a desert' -
He said the Huwaizah swamplands were irrigated by two tributaries of the Tigris River, which originates in Turkey, but that their flows had dropped.
Iraqi authorities are rationing supplies to cover different needs, he said.
The government wants to preserve the largest quantity of water possible, he added, lamenting unfair water sharing and poor (resource) management.
After pressure from protesters, authorities partially opened the valves, he said, but had closed them again.
On the Iranian side, the Huwaizah Marshes, called Hoor al-Azim, are also suffering.
The wetland is facing water stress and currently about half of its Iranian part has dried up, Iran's state news agency IRNA reported recently.
Hatem Hamid, who heads the Iraqi government's water management centre, said that on the Iranian side, the main river that feeds the Huwaizah marsh has been totally cut for more than a year.
The water needs of Iraqi farms and marshlands are only half met, he acknowledged, as authorities are closely monitoring reserves and trying to cover a range of uses, with drinking water one of the priorities.
Iraqi officials point to canals and small streams that have been rehabilitated to feed into the marshes -- and to where some families have relocated from dried-out areas.
But it is impossible to compensate for the very high evaporation in the marshes in temperatures that pass 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit), he added.
In Chibayish, the effects of the drought are all too clear to Ali Jawad, who said dozens of families had left his hamlet.
They migrated towards other regions, looking for areas where there is water, the 20-year-old said.
Before, when we used to come to the marshes, there was greenery, water, inner peace, he added.
Now it's like a desert.