Just when things were looking up for Iraq’s iconic marshlands, another threat has materialised. Iran has begun building a dyke that will threaten the water supply to the healthiest of the wetlands, the Al-Hawizeh marsh.
“It will cut off a vast amount of water and remove some of the recovering marshes,” says Curtis Richardson of Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, who is monitoring the recovery.
Richardson told Â鶹´«Ã½ that maintaining the Al-Hawizeh marsh, which straddles the border between Iran and Iraq, is crucial because it is a refuge for species that may recolonise other marshes.
The wetlands, which…
