Result of the draining, from bbc.co.uk.

Baghdad is not the only important settlement on the Tigris and the Euphrates. The wetlands of southern Iraq lay claim to being the Eden of Christian faith. Located on the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers, these marshes were home to a large wildlife population and supported whole human villages. Sadly they were drained in the 1990s under Saddam Hussein, an action that quickly destroyed the ecosystem and local communities. Since the fall of Hussein there has been a move to restore the marshes and the ancient way of life with some success. For the whole story please visit: http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_9364000/9364044.stm

Building the World Blog by Kathleen Lusk Brooke and Zoe G Quinn is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.