IRAQ: Move to revive ailing marshlands

web BAGHDAD, 16 March 2009 (IRIN) – On 12 March the Iraqi government and a number of UN agencies launched a $47 million initiative to remove dykes and canals built by the regime of former President Saddam Hussein so that water can flow back into marshland areas. The aim is to help the government strengthen services, build better governance systems, and develop agriculture and public services in these areas. “People living in the marshlands are some of the poorest and most badly provided with basic services,” David Shearer, UN deputy special representative of the Secretary-General, said in a statement on 12 March. Reviving Iraq’s marshlands, the largest wetland ecosystem in the Middle East,…

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