Region | Iraq
Iraq and UN to restore historic marshlands drained by Saddam Hussain
Iraq and the United Nations have agreed to restore historic marshlands drained by Saddam Hussain to hunt down Shiite rebels.
- AP
- Published: 20:08 March 13, 2009
Amman, Jordan: Iraq and the United Nations have agreed to restore historic marshlands drained by Saddam Hussain to hunt down Shiite rebels.
Iraq and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization have signed the memorandum of understanding in the Jordanian capital, Amman, to discuss the project.
The $47 million effort will remove dikes and canals that Saddam built so that water can flow back into the area and improve living standards of inhabitants in the area.
Much of the marshlands, believed by some scholars to have been the biblical Garden of Eden, turned into an arid salt bed after Saddam drained them.
He did so after inhabitants supported Shiites who rebelled against his forces just after the 1991 Gulf War.
News Editor's choice
-
Ukraine leaders fight over Russian language
Violence erupts in Ukraine parliament over a bill to allow use of Russian language in courts, hospitals
-
CBSE: 100% success in many UAE schools
6,000 students from 53 schools meet grade expectations in examinations
-
'I can’t believe he is not going to come back'
Seventeen-year-old boy went missing in Dubai during a visit from Pakistan
