| 1950s : The marsh area,
near the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers,
is affected by drainage programmes. 1991 : An extensive network of dykes and channels to take water away from the marsh area, which originally extended for almost 9,000 square kilometres, is started by Saddam Hussein's regime. |
||
May
2003 |
2002 : Satellite images showed the area had shrunk to only 760 square kilometres; an estimated 70,000 people were forced into camps in Iran.
|
March
2005 |
 |
||
| The black areas are water. | ||
| "the UN acknowledges that it will take many years before the area is fully restored to its original condition - if, indeed, that is possible, with dams in Turkey, Syria and Iran reducing the amount of water which flows down the Tigris and Euphrates." | ||