US Edition'The Marshes Are Dead': Iraqi Buffalo Herders Wander in Search of Water
Persistent drought and upstream dams have reduced Iraq's Mesopotamian marshes to 800 sq km, causing buffalo herds to produce one-third of their normal milk output, UN reports.
- This year, Iraqi buffalo herder Watheq Abbas said `There's no more water, the marshes are dead` and described five years without water in the Mesopotamian marshes.
- Upstream dams in Turkey and Iran have sharply reduced flow in the Tigris and Euphrates, while declining rainfall and soaring temperatures have increased evaporation, worsening drought in southern Iraq.
- Population data show Mesopotamian water buffaloes fell from 309,000 in 1974 to 40,000 by 2000, citing water scarcity as the main cause.
- Authorities at Chibayish have deepened channels so Abbas's 25 buffaloes can cool off amid the drying marshes, reflecting immediate relief efforts for local herders.
- A UN report in July warned the buffalo population is "at risk of extinction," while only 800 square kilometres remain submerged compared with Nature Iraq NGO's past re-flooding goal of 5,600 square kilometres.
37 Articles
37 Articles
'The marshes are dead': Iraqi buffalo herders wander in search of water
Like his father, Iraqi buffalo herder Watheq Abbas grazes his animals in Iraq's southern wetlands, but with persistent drought shrinking marshland where they feed and decimating the herd, his millennia-old way of life is threatened.
FOX 28 Spokane
Malaysiajournal‘The marshes are dead’: Iraqi buffalo herders wander in search of water
Like his father, Iraqi buffalo herder Watheq Abbas grazes his animals in Iraq's southern wetlands, but with persistent drought shrinking marshland where they feed and decimating the herd, his millennia-old way of life is threatened. "There's no more water, the marshes are dead," said 27-year-old Abbas, who has led his buffaloes to pasture in the
'The Marshes Are Dead': Iraqi Buffalo Herders Wander In Search Of Water
Like his father, Iraqi buffalo herder Watheq Abbas grazes his animals in Iraq's southern wetlands, but with persistent drought shrinking marshland where they feed and decimating the herd, his millennia-old way of life is threatened.
The drought in Iraq is imposing a harsh reality, with the water reservoir falling to dangerous levels, with few water releases from neighbouring countries and the severe effects of drought and climate change, which have become evident on the marshes in a groove.
Like his father before him, Watheq Abbas has been feeding his buffalo for 15 years in the marshes of southern Iraq. But drought, which decimates herds, now threatens a multi-year-old way of life inherited from ancient Mesopotamia."There is no more water, the marshes are dead",...
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