» Home » Business News Iraq Directory Services Plans Subscription Contact us Site Map Help About Iraq Japan allocates $11 million to help Iraq marsh inhabitants Absence of public services like education, health and clean water is forcing many marsh Arabs to leave their ancestral habitat, Environment Ministry’s head of planning Abbas Naji said. The former regime had flushed out tens of thousands of marsh Arabs after drying up their wetlands.Many of them opted to return when the 2003 U.S.-led invasion toppled the regime but they are leaving the area once again in droves. “The tragedy of the marshes is represented in the fact that the standard of public services is very low and that the inhabitants are emigrating,” Naji said. “True we are an oil-rich country but standards of living here are comparable to the poverty-stricken countries,” Naji added. Earlier reports gave a rosy picture of Iraqi wetlands saying water had inundated large areas and many plant, bird and fish species which disappeared were returning. Latest investigations by the ministry indicated that up to 30% of the former wetlands had been restored with the quality of the water flowing into them improving steadily. The new authorities have spent millions of dollars to revive the marshes and help inhabitants to start new life. But despite the flow of resources, Naji said the ministry “has no control over the project … We will try to expedite our efforts so that the inhabitants will be able to reap the fruits of our work.” The latest donation for the impoverished marsh Arabs has come from Japan which has allocated $11 million for the project. The money, according to Naji, will be used “to construct six residential complexes in Basra and Amara” where most of the marshes the former regime had drained are situated. Each complex will be like “a modern village” with modern amenities, he said. Modernity had yet to come to Iraqi marshes when former leader Saddam Hussein turned them into waste land. When forced to leave, marsh Arabs still pursued living conditions prevalent in ancient Iraq thousands of years ago. Naji said Japan’s pledge to finance the project is contingent on the presence of international aid workers from the U.N. Environment Program. © 2002-2004 Iraq Directory - All Rights Reserved