The Al Faw Peninsula in the southern province of Basra was famous in the past for henna and palms, but these lush green areas have now become ground-breaking.

As he passed through a dry palm on the ground, farmer Abbas Abdel-Hassan said that water shortages and the subsequent use of salt water from the Shatt al-Arab river, which was contaminated with irrigation, wiped out areas that were planted with henna, which used its leaves to make a dark paste using a dye.

The farmer said that the FAO was full of henna trees before it began to fade after the rise of salt water level.

Henna farms fall to about 50 (Reuters)

Great retreat
The owner of a farm in the FAO, Fadhil Faleh Abdullah said that after there were about 425 farms produce five thousand kilograms of henna leaves annually for export mainly, this number has now decreased to about 50 farms produce about three hundred kilograms.

Decades of war destroyed the farms. In the past, Iraq was a major producer of dates before shifting its economic focus from agriculture to oil.

Its cities (Basra) have been devastated by conflict and neglect since the 1980s. FAO, located on the banks of the Shatt al-Arab Delta near the Arabian Gulf, was severely damaged by its position on the frontline of the 1980-88 war against Iran.

Abdul Azim Mohammed, assistant director of agriculture in Basra, said about 38,000 palm trees had died in the region since 2008.

He added that the lack of water, which led to the increase of salt water supply has damaged the cultivation of Basra, and caused a decline in the number of henna farms in FAO.

Henna Faw is rare and hard to get (Reuters)

Alternative Attempts
A local government project has tried to revive the farms over the past two years by setting up a farm in northern Basra. During the harvest season - between January, April and May - the paper is harvested every 45 days and sold on local markets.

"The Ministry of Agriculture decided to set up a compensation project for the Hanaa Fawa branch. In Kot al-Zein, we set up a 10-dunam orchard, but because of the salt water conditions, the project failed, so we moved to al-Haritha area, north of Basra," the official said.

Sara Ibrahim, a beauty salon worker in Basra, described Hanaa Faw as a "heritage".

"Iraq used to export Henna al-Faw to the Gulf countries, but it is difficult to get them now," she said after she had her hands covered with henna.