Draining of the Mesopotamian Marshes

The Mesopotamian Marshes were drained in Iraq and to a smaller degree in Iran between the 1950s and 1990s to clear large areas of the marshes in the Tigris-Euphrates river system. The marshes formerly covered an area of around . The main sub-marshes, the Hawizeh, Central, and Hammar marshes, were drained at different times for different reasons. In the 1990s, the marshes were drained for political motives, namely to force the Marsh Arabs out of the area and to punish them for their role in the 1…