Iraq's dried marshes cause dust cover

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By Aftab Kazmi, Al Ain Bureau Chief, and Khitam Al Amir, Staff Reporter

Published: August 03, 2009, 22:57

 

Dubai: The layer of dust blanketing the Arabian Peninsula and the UAE, originating from Iraq, could be more specifically coming from the country's drying marshes once fringed by a fifth of the world's palm trees and consequently drained by then president Saddam Hussain, a scientist has said.

 

Iraqi professor of physics, Dr Mohammad Akef Jamal believes the dried up marshes of southern Iraq is one of many man-made disasters that hit Iraq, which was once the region's most fertile area.

 

In pictures: Southern Iraq's marshlands

 

The delta between the Euphrates and Tigers Rivers, that contained the ancient city of Babylon, is known as a fertile and dusty area. The confluence of the two rivers forms the Shatt Al Arab waterway that flows into the Arabian Gulf.

 

The Shatt Al Arab marshes were drained by the Saddam regime in the 1990s to prevent the militias from taking refuge there. Some scientists believe that dust from the dry areas there hang in the air in the Arabian peninsula.

 

A senior meteorologist at Dubai Met Department told Gulf News that satellite images show that the dust was lifted up from the Euphrates River area in Iraq. The area he was pointing to has marshlands but they are surrounded by desert dunes.

 

Experts believe that a storm kicked up the dust from Iraq and some specific conditions and wind movement sent a large amount of fine particles to the Gulf.

 

Since the turn of the 21st century, the frequency and duration of such storms have increased according to Dr Jamal.

Beginning in mid-April 2009, and continuing throughout May and June, dust storms have been plaguing Iraq and the Gulf region, which are facing the worst of such storms in living memory. "Iraq is being transformed from a fertile country into a dust bowl," said Dr Jamal.

 

"Man-made disasters, including Turkey's building of dams, the US occupation of Iraq and political corruption, are among others reasons that would drive Iraq to the verge of an ecological collapse."

 

He attributed the collapse of the local and regional ecosystems to the American invasion that led to the near total destruction of infrastructure, drought, water shortages, desertification, sandstorms, and mismanagement of resources.

 

According to the Iraqi Ministry of Agriculture, about 90 per cent of Iraq's land has either turned into desert or is experiencing severe desertification. Elaborating on this, Dr Jamal said this is a natural result of the continuous construction of dams by Turkey on the Tigris and Euphrates. In 1990, Turkey revealed plans to build 22 dams, which are expected to be completed in 2010.

 

Iraq's hydrological misery is compounded by Iran, which is also building new dams on tributaries of the Tigris, Dr Jamal said, adding that, "Some of these rivers have run completely dry."

 

Mohammad Raouf, Programme Manager - Environment Research at the Gulf Research Centre said the sandstorms are a natural phenomenon due to the geography of the region. "Climate change for sure is worsening the situation. Most of the dust storms in the region come from Iraq. There is no doubt that loss of arable land and water shortage in Iraq led to more desertification which have its final effect on sandstorms. In all cases, we need a long time period in order to be sure to link climate change to frequency and duration of such storms," he said.

 

Professor A.M.O. Mohammad, an expert in water resources and Director of Research Affairs at UAE University said the sandstorms are made up of a fine dust mostly generated by strong winds in the desert and sand dunes.

 

Winds normally cannot kick up dust from a dried up river bed or marshlands, he said. The presence of clay in riverbeds or marshlands turns the area into solid pieces when dry that cannot be lifted by winds.

 

- With inputs from Emmanuelle Landais, Staff Reporter

 

Gulf News

 

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Abu Dhabi

 

 

Perils of Dust

 

 

5 August 2009

The UAE is enveloped in a blanket — an unhealthy dust blanket. And dangerous dimensions show up when one goes into its origin. They demand urgent intervention, if the environment is to be protected.

 

Fine particles of dust have blown in from long distances, affecting the cities and suburbs of the UAE. Vehicles have been covered with an orange dust coating. Saying that it is a consequence of the 2003 invasion of Iraq may sound implausible. But, it is one of the stated causes of the phenomenon. Over six years of troop movement and military operations have changed the terrain of Iraq. The top soil stands pulverised and even light winds are enough to puff the powder upwards. Compound that with desertification and we have conditions of severe aridity in Iraq: the water levels have lowered in rivers Tigris and Euphrates because of irrigation projects, and two years of drought have not helped. The draining of the fertile delta between the Tigris and Euphrates — once home to a fifth of the world’s palm trees — during the 1990s by Saddam Hussain has rendered the region so dry that dust storms have become frequent. In the latest instance, a massive storm in Iraq blew over into Iran, Qatar and to the UAE.

 

The rare occurrence, though termed dust storm in common parlance, ceased to be a storm once it reached the UAE. The north-westerly winds, Shamal, which were strong as they blew into the Gulf, diminished in strength and has all but died over the Arabian Gulf leaving the UAE in a haze of dust. The low-pressure condition prevailing here has not helped in carrying the sand elsewhere.

 

One of the problems arising from the situation is poor visibility for motorists, especially in the morning and at night. Warnings have also been issued to those who venture out to sea. However, a more serious problem arises from the harmfulness of the air around us. Going outdoors is considerably risky, particularly for children and people with respiratory illnesses. Hospitals and clinics in the UAE have shown a marked increase in the number of patients with breathing problems. The fact that there are very small particles in the atmosphere makes the situation far more hazardous. Particles smaller than 2.5 micrometres can travel deep into the lungs and cause serious health problems.

 

It is high time we realised that more trees have to be planted and every standing tree has to be saved. Prevention, to state the obvious, is better than cure. In short, the earth has to be saved from an ecological collapse.

 

Khaleej Times

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In Revelation 16:12, it is prophesied that the Euphrates will dry up in preparation for the Battle of Armageddon: "And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared."

It said to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, "Release the four ... Read Moreangels who are bound at the great river Euphrates." And the four angels who had been kept ready for this very hour and day and month and year were released to kill a third of mankind. The number of the mounted troops was two hundred million. I heard their number.Revelation 9:14

The Prophet Muhammad said: "The Hour will not come to pass before the river Euphrates dries up to unveil the mountain of gold, for which people will fight. Ninety-nine out of one hundred will die [in the fighting], and every man among them will say: 'Perhaps I may be the only one to remain alive'." — Sahih Bukhari, Sahih Muslim.

"What are they awaiting but for the Hour to come upon them suddenly? Its Signs have already come. What good will their Reminder be to them when it does arrive?" (Surah Muhammad: 18)

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It was said to signal the end of time; the Euphrates is running dry, reports Campbell Robertson from Jubaish in Iraq.

 

"MAAKU mai!" shout the reed gatherers, holding up their rusty sickles to passing boats. "There is no water!"

 

The Euphrates is drying up; strangled by Iraq's neighbours, Turkey and Syria, a two-year drought and years of misuse by farmers. The shrinking of the Euphrates, a river so crucial to the birth of civilisation that the Book of Revelation prophesied its drying up as a sign of the end of time, has decimated farms along its banks, leaving fishermen impoverished and depleting riverside towns as people flee to the cities looking for work.

 

Along the river, rice and wheat fields have turned to baked dirt. Canals have dwindled to shallow streams, and fishing boats sit on dry land.

 

"The old men say it's the worst they remember," said Sayid Diyia, a 34-year-old fisherman in Hindiya, sitting in a riverside cafe full of his idle colleagues. "I'm depending on God's blessings."

 

The drought is widespread in Iraq. The area sown with wheat and barley in the rain-fed north is down roughly 95 per cent from the usual and the date palm and citrus orchards of the east are parched.

 

But drought is only part of what is choking the Euphrates. The most frequently cited culprits are the Turkish and Syrian governments. There are at least seven dams on the Euphrates in Turkey and Syria, according to Iraqi water officials, and with no treaties or agreements, the Iraqi Government is reduced to begging its neighbours for water.

 

Along the river, there is no shortage of resentment at the Turks and Syrians. But there is also resentment at the Americans, Kurds, Iranians and the Iraqi Government, all of whom are blamed. Scarcity makes foes of everyone.

 

On a scorching morning in Diwaniya, Bashia Mohammed, 60, was working in a drainage pool by the highway gathering salt, her family's only source of income now that its rice farm has dried up. But the dead farm was not the real crisis.

 

"There's no water in the river that we drink from," she said, referring to a channel that flows from the Euphrates. "It's now totally dry, and it contains sewage water. They dig wells but sometimes the water just cuts out and we have to drink from the river. All my kids are sick because of the water."

 

In the south-east, where the Euphrates nears the end of its 2785-kilometre journey and mingles with the less salty waters of the Tigris before emptying into the Persian Gulf, the situation is grave. The marshes there that were intentionally reflooded in 2003, rescuing the ancient culture of the marsh Arabs, are drying up again. Sheep graze on land in the middle of the river.

 

"Next winter will be the final chance," said Hashem Hilead Shehi, a 73-year-old farmer who lives in a bone-dry village west of the marshes. "If we are not able to plant, then all of the families will leave."

 

NEW YORK TIMES