Video .. On the third anniversary of its accession to the Marshlands World Heritage complains negligence

Alaa Kooli-Dhi Qar

On this day, 17 July 2016, the marshes (southern Iraq) were incorporated into the World Heritage List, when the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) unanimously voted to include the marshes in the World Heritage List.

The Marshlands were a cultural center for the Marsh Arabs, who are the legitimate heirs of the Sumerian and Babylonian civilizations, which UNESCO described at the time as "a haven of biological diversity and a historic site for the cities of Mesopotamia."

Despite considerable international support for UNESCO's decision, the region, which has long suffered from marginalization and exclusion, has not received governmental or international attention, reflecting its promising tourism and cultural value, and the migration of many people to other areas due to drought and neglect.

The United Nations and the Iraqi government promised to provide water releases to the Marshlands, which are characterized by their houses built of canyons that swim in the water, and contain an integrated life, and depend on the food mainly on fish and buffalo breeding.

In accordance with the organization's decision, four marshes in the south of Iraq, the Central Marshlands, the western donkey's wadi, the eastern donkey's horset, and the Hawizah mountain, entered the heritage list. A group of water bodies covering the lowlands located between the cities of Amara, Nasiriyah and Basra.

Tourist opportunities
The area of ​​the marshes is about 17% of the area of ​​Iraq, and the water cover 3.8 million acres (one thousand acres) of Iraqi territory, including 2.3 million acres covered with marsh water, according to government reports.

This environment is a rare diversity and an environment conducive to the transit of migratory birds, and the marshes are known for their abundant plant and animal resources, most notably buffaloes.

The marshes covered an area of ​​about 15,000 square kilometers around the southern part of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, but they began to decline since the outbreak of the Iran-Iraq War until the early 1990s. The regime then dried them up to pursue dissidents, many of whom became refugees and immigrants.

It is expected that there will be projects funded by the European Union to develop tourist sites near the city of Or, at a cost of three billion dollars, where it is supposed to be a recreational complex includes many lakes and cafes and floating clubs, according to the Chairman of the Committee on Tourism and Antiquities in the Council of Dhi Qar Haifa Aljabri of the island Net.

Neglect and corruption
The Marshlands have not witnessed any development, either on the service or urban reality, to ensure its sustainability, but it has remained the same, and the officials in charge of the file are holding meetings not shy anymore, according to the talk of the Governor of Dhi Qar for the Marshlands of the island.

Al-Khayyoun reveals the existence of personal and temperamental objections to any investment project in the marshes, such as the fishing club project, which spent a lot of money on the designs to create an integrated tourism complex at a cost of eight billion dinars (seven million dollars).

In light of these concerns about the neglect of the ancient city of Babylon, which joined the World Heritage List on a few days ago, environmental activist and official of the Chabaish Ecotourism Raad El Assadi suggested that a national body be created for sites that have joined the World Heritage.

UNESCO required the inclusion of Babylon on the World Heritage List to remove the changes in the ancient city, but observers questioned the possibility of achieving the conditions of the international organization in light of the corruption plaguing the Iraqi state.

Promises
Al-Asadi told Al-Jazeera Net that the government's statements on the marshes are no more than promises, and he hoped to complete real promising projects that would compensate for the droughts experienced by the marshes several years ago.

For his part, between the Minister of Tourism and Antiquities Abdul Amir Al-Hamadani, on Tuesday, that the federal government will launch in August next a new batch of development of marshes and archaeological areas in the province of Dhi Qar.

The province of Dhi Qar in 2018 the displacement of more than four thousand families from the Marshlands following the drought, which worsened during that year, while the tunnel of about twenty thousand head of buffaloes, in addition to large quantities of fish, which led to the escape of the population in search of sources Water in the central Euphrates and north of Baghdad.

In addition to the marshes, three other archaeological sites entered three years ago, the city of Ur in Nasiriyah, and the famous Zaqoura Ur, and the city of Aridu west of Nasiriyah, which is mentioned by some translations and legends as one of the most important Sumerian cities where the kings of Sumer were thousands of years old. Muthanna province where the writing and the epic of Kalkamesh appeared.