The Last Of The Marsh Arabs
Iraq is one of the most climate-vulnerable places on Earth.
What happens to a community and ecosystem at the nexus of geopolitical tensions and climate change? And can 6,000 years of history save them?
The Mesopotamian marshes, named for the historic region defined by the Tigris and Euphrates and often thought to be the biblical Garden of Eden, lie on a vast, flat floodplain where the lower courses of the rivers come together to form an extensive inland delta. Historically, winter rains and snowmelt at the headwaters caused floods to the south, and the marshes would absorb this excess like a sponge, swelling outwards with seasonal growth and then shrinking in the lean summers by draining to the Persian Gulf. The inundations deposited silt from the mountains that fertilized the land, creating a diverse, lush ecosystem in an otherwise arid environment.
Early settlers worked this ground to grow crops and domesticate animals; eventually, around 6,000 years ago, agriculture led to urbanization. These early cities — Eridu, Uruk, Ur and others — relied heavily on the natural resources of the marshes and were strung along waterways and latticed with canals to give access to the plains, the Gulf and to one another. Farmers grew barley and wheat and cultivated orchards of date palms, under which prospered gardens of fruit and vegetables. People dug clay from the ground for pottery, and early forms of writing were developed to keep track of the burgeoning trade between cities. When UNESCO added the Iraqi marshes as a World Heritage Site in 2016, it was in recognition of the area as a cradle of civilization as much as for its biological diversity.
In partnership with Iraqi environmental monitoring network Humat Dijlah.
Abu Haider and Umm Haider drive their engine powered boats through the Chibayish Marshlands
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Flaring from a nearby oil field by the Hawizeh Marshes, Iraq.
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Marsh Arab men meet in a mudhif [reed built hall] in Chibayish to discuss local matters over coffee.
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Ishmael Khalil Noor's buffalo and calves return jome at sunset after bathing in the waters in at his home in the Central Marshes, Iraq.
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Abu Eisa's daughter outside their family home in the Hawizeh Marshes, Iraq. In the background, the gas burnoff lights the night sky.
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Eisa outside his family home in the Hawizeh Marshes, Iraq. In the background, the gas burnoff lights the night sky.
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Amarah sits inside his home in Baghdad. He was born in Amarah, and grew up in the marshes but he was forced to leave, along with his family, in search of a better future.
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Abu Sajad carries a faleh, a traditional fishing spear, in the Hawizeh Marshes, Iraq.
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Umm Jasim's children stand among their families buffalo and newborn calf in a traditional reed built stable in the Hammar Marshes, Iraq.
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Algae on the surface of the water in the Hawizeh Marshes, Iraq.
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A young fisherman on his boat during the daily fish market in the Central Marshes, close to Chibayish in Iraq
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Contemporary Marsh Arab housing in the Chibayish Marshland during the winter months.
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A disused water pumping device, used by Saddam to drain the marshlands, lies stranded in a desertified stretch of land that was once marshland in the Hawizeh Marshes, Iraq.
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Dried fish caught in the Hawizeh Marshes by Abu Eisa hang outside his family home in Iraq.
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Abu Sajad [far right] stands with his uncle, Abu Hassan [2nd from left], his cousin, Abu Haroun, and another relative on hay bales beside their home on the edge of the Hawizeh Marshes, Iraq.
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Abbas stands on his boat in the Hawizeh Marshes, Iraq.
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Fatima's brother cuts fresh reeds for her water buffalo between the Central and Hawizeh Marshes in Iraq.
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Abu Eisa's daughter watches a Quranic recitation live on TV at their family home in the Hawizeh Marshes, Iraq.
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Children repair a fishing net outside their traditional reed built home in the Hammar Marshes.
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Abu Eisa's water buffalo in the Hawizeh Marshes, Iraq.
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