“When I saw our land collapsing into a desert and a mirage, after the hand of water was covering it like a mother’s embrace, I felt that my homeland had disappeared. Everything I knew was collapsing, a stricken land, a destroyed identity, and a culture on the verge of extinction.”

Mustafa Hashem (20 years old), the young marsh man who grew up among reeds and water, appears sad, desperate, and filled with helplessness. He does not know what he should do for the sake of his environment and his place, which is evaporating in front of him, and he is unable to protect it. He says that history repeats itself, and that Perhaps, there is no escape from the scene of drying, the death of animals, the reeds, and the mass migration, a scene that affected every aspect of his life, making him today, placing his hand on his heart, fearing a new migration towards the unknown.

What is marsh life like?

Like a sad movie scene, moved brilliantly without the need for a director, we will tell you about the marshes, which will appear to you, in the form of bodies of water of extreme beauty and space, a group of buffaloes that appear happy as they immerse their bodies in the water, between the reeds and the laughter of children and caravans of fish searching for the nets of their fishermen. Some women gather to make bread. The environment of the marshes seems so simple and easy, and in an unseen moment of time, everything will evaporate, with the heat of the weather and the interruption of water supplies. The land that was submerged in water will dry up, and the fish will come out to breathe their last. Groups of buffalo stand, It cannot move due to the sedimentation of mud, and it dies in its place, the reeds become dry, and the sun appears harsher than it was, while the people of Hawar look forward to their lives gradually ending, threatening a component of Iraqi society with extinction and an end to the story of its rituals and environment.

The marshes region in Iraq - as environmental expert Jassem Al-Asadi explains - which are bodies of water that have existed in southern Iraq for thousands of years - suffered from drying up, successively and for generations and for different reasons, even after the year 2003, specifically in the years 2009, 2015, 2018. But today, it is facing a wave of drying, which is considered the harshest and most powerful, threatening thousands of animals with the danger of extinction, and with the mass displacement of its population, who do not know anything other than their water identity, due to the cutting off of water supplies by Turkey and Iran, as Turkey alone built approximately 600 dams. On the Tigris and Euphrates, and reduced the volume of water supplies to Iraq, and no longer gives it its agreed-upon share of water, while Iran, on the other hand, contributes by cutting off the flow of water to the Iraqi tributaries, and diverting it to them, amid the silence of the Iraqi government. In the face of the cries of the people of the marshes and their appeals to save them from an environmental disaster, animals, and humanity have already begun to consume them, and even their demonstrations, which were met with repression and arrests, as if the government was telling them, “This is how it is. Accept the destruction of your land, or we will turn it into prisons for your children.”

A history of grief

Mustafa Hashem explains that his family has a history of persecution, as a group that was subjected to genocide in the 1990s, when several members of his family were killed, including his uncle, and his father was imprisoned after he arrived at Sater in search of his buffaloes.

"All the buffaloes were later killed as a tactic to put us through famine. We were deprived of water and our villages dried up in the midst of a drought and extermination campaign. My family was forcibly displaced to the outskirts of Baghdad and then to northern Basra, and then they returned to our village in the Hawiza marsh, after the water returned to it."

What Iraq looks like without the marshes

The origin of the marshes in Iraq goes back millions of years, and they constitute about 2-3 percent of the total area of Iraq, and its inhabitants have lived there for thousands of years. Due to the presence of water, one of the most important and oldest civilizations, namely the Sumerians, rose near them. The marshes were the largest ecosystem and water system. In the Middle East, its area is about 9,000 km in normal seasons and up to 20,000 km in flood seasons. It extends towards three southern governorates: Dhi Qar, Maysan, and Basra. It is considered an important part of the routes for migratory birds crossing between continents, and supporting species. Endangered animals, as environmental expert Jassim Al-Asadi confirms, and the residents of the marshes lost more than “25 percent of their herds of buffalo, and about 80 percent of their fish” with the recent drying campaign, which does not herald at all, as he says, the return of life to this important place.

“The marshes rely on streams of water, as they shrink and expand depending on the waters coming to the Tigris and Euphrates. Also, the reasons for the lack of water releases from Turkey, and the construction of canals and tunnels by Iran, are the only ones that can dry up the marshes. Due to the lack of rain in Iraq, this contributes to increasing drought, along with the mismanagement of the Ministry of Water Resources and the failure of the decision-maker in the Ministry of Resources to pay attention to the marshes and their share, as stated in the “Swirly” study. The ministries do not have a planned scenario for severe drought or modernization, and the marshes didn’t even get their minimum share, which is why we lost huge areas of the marches and sustainable economies for the local population were hurt.”

The pursued pacifists

“The Ahwaris live a quiet, isolated life, with no place among them for technology. They still practice a simple life in much of their lifestyle, which brings comfort to them. They are a secluded group and they depend completely, in their existence, on water, which is considered the source of their basic income. In its presence, they will be able to sell animals, such as Iraqi water buffalo, and fish, and export cane to the Gulf countries”, explains Raad Al-Asadi, the environmental activist.

“They are a small state inside Iraq, without need for government care, salaries, or budget. The inhabitants of the marshes make a living, relying on nature alone, but they are not safe from the extended governments and their oppression, and despite their peacefulness and their lack of interference in anything, problems surround them.” Their only war with the governments was a permanent water war and nothing more, and they did not ask the authorities for anything, except to give them their water quotas to ensure their survival in their environment and not be forced to migrate. This has already happened with their fathers, as water is the principal ruler in the marshes, and it is the basis of their livelihood. Its cessation means their death, and this is what always happens to them.”

Drying and displacement

The story of Mustafa and his family began, as explained by him, with the intentional drying of the marshes by Iraq which cut the water off so that the central government would preserve it in the central regions. This is mainly because these regions suffer from Turkey’s dams, while on the other hand, Iran cuts the water that feeds the Hawizeh Marshes and the rest of the regions and rivers off as an ethnic policy to preserve it in areas with a Persian majority.

“But now, we are experiencing living conditions that are no different from that during the drought of our land in the nineties. When the marshes dried up, we lost everything we lived on: the reeds we sell and the fish we catch. We no longer benefit from tourism, and our buffalo that we had known all our lives died. Our living condition began to decline for the worse after we lost all our work and now live on a small amount of money from social welfare, all because of the drought. The government is not satisfied with that, but has arrested those who demand an end to this humanitarian crisis.”

Facing Demonstrations with Oppression

Small protests erupted by a group of young Ahwari, after which a number of them were transferred to the hospital due to brutal and excessive violence. The police used their weapons at those demanding the provision of water to prevent a humanitarian disaster. One policeman shouted the word “Ma’dan” at the protesters before he began beating them. While another one said, “I can’t believe that I skipped lunch because of these people and their demands”

The Iraqi state condones and refuses to stop or adopt a position against the regular killing by the Iranian Guard of the Marsh farmers who cross to search for their animals that migrate in search of water to the east of the marshes, i.e. the side controlled by Iran. The Iranian Guard regularly kills the Marsh residents from time to time with Iraqi approval. These days, the police surrounded a group of protesters who were able to cross the bridges before they were closed, and subjected them to severe violence and frankly threatened them with death. At a time when protests are raging in Kurdistan and some areas of Iraq, severe government repression may be used to implement policies that would ignite a massive revolution or civil war and tribal fighting in the midst of a crisis that the country is already experiencing.

Arrests against Ahwaris

Abbas Ahmed, one of the marsh residents who lost much of their livelihood and oversaw the death of some of his family’s buffaloes, confirms that the security forces surrounded the Al-Ma’il area in the Hawizeh marsh and carried out massive and continuous arrests of marsh protesters demanding the provision of water and an end to the humanitarian crisis in the area. On the other hand, the army forces sealed all the outlets in the area with concrete, checkpoints were set up, and protesters were beaten and arrested before the protests escalated, justifying their actions by an order from the central command.”

“What is happening to us is government violence, forced displacement, and an impoverishment policy that could spark a war. They do not give us water to continue our life, because we die without water. They reject our peaceful demonstration, and they even reject the migration of some desperate families to other areas in search of livelihood. What do we do, people? Save us, we are dying!"

Why did the authorities insist on repression?

The media refuses to hear the narrative of the protesters themselves and insists on blacking out the events. Why are the Ahwari protesters still continuing to protest? Abbas asks and answers himself, “Because the authorities do not care about their lives and prevent and refuse to implement radical political and diplomatic solutions with the upstream countries, Turkey and Iran, which hold most of Iraqi water. Additionally, Iraqi water shares are limited in the southern governorates, and when the authorities wanted to give Basra its share to ensure that a new revolution would not occur, they did that by diverting much of Maysan Governorate’s share without depleting any of the shares of the central regions. This led to the drying up and death of the Amara river and all the marshes, especially the Hawizeh Marshes, thus announcing the beginning of mass forced displacement that heralds disasters that will continue for generations to come.

It's not new

Abbas believes that the violence and discrimination to which they are exposed is systematic, rooted in state institutions, traditional social concepts and the old class system, and intersecting with colonialism, the environment, race, and class since the founding of the Iraqi state until today.

“My grandfather was killed in the nineties, while we were exposed to radiation as a result of the bombing that hit our villages to displace us before the greater intentional drought. My father was stricken with cancer and died among his buffalos after we returned to our original homeland. He wanted to die among the reeds and water. History repeats itself today with the new generation: new terrorism, new oppression, and ethnic cleansing. We are surrounded by diseases that will afflict us as a result of the pollution of our land and animals, and our children will die this time as a result of neglect, not radiation.”

Are the marshes just tourist pictures?

So far, four of Abbas’s buffaloes have died. He says he knows the inevitable fate of the rest, but he cries as if they are dying for the first time, every time. His young ones cry with him, and his mother chants mournful wails and wails, which turn the tears heading for the cracked ground into rocks of worry and sorrow.

“The sad thing is that during the water season, everyone was visiting us for tourism and taking pictures with us and our nature, but today they do not care about what is happening to us. The marshes are not just a heritage tourist attraction, they are a human identity for a component that has been inhabited over generations and generations, and its end means the end of part of Iraq’s identity.”

Government decisions kill the marshes

This ongoing persecution, and the bad feeling that haunts the people of the marshes, is rooted on a daily basis, through the actions of the local authorities and the central government against them, as several days ago the Minister of Interior decided to stop the legal address change to Karbala Governorate to limit immigration. Sources say that these decisions do not end immigration because the process of changing address on legal documents has basically stopped in Iraq, except for some exceptions, and they are calling for stricter measures to limit immigration and stop all exceptions.

The Basra government also announced a law two years ago stipulating “no more identity cards for immigrants,” as a solution to ending the migration of the Marsh people. After that, the government put in place a wave of new laws against the Marsh people in several central governorates.

More than half of the families cannot afford food and basics and cannot access the financial safety net. They have also been excluded from accessing public services and other rights, which include labor, working for the police, settling disputes, and guarantees of property rights, says Mustafa Hashem, who explains that his family today faces death. He can’t make up his mind. Will he leave his land and environment and face ostracism, marginalization, and racism? Or does he surrender and wait for the destruction of his environment?

“The government rejects my family’s request to obtain compensation for my uncle’s death, and even in work and social relationships, I am subjected to discrimination and contempt because of my dialect and my Marshlands origin. I hold myself responsible for conveying this crisis through the activity and flags that we make in the Marshlands Network for Human Rights,” Mustafa says.

He explains in his speech that the government stated that it may settle displaced people from the marshes on both sides of the rivers instead of sending them to the cities. This systematic discrimination causes terrible living conditions, a humanitarian crisis, and damage that will last for generations. What has been happening for years now is a demographic change and forced migration of the Marsh people, and the world should know about it.

The bird that died

As for Mortada Ali, a resident of Al-Sanaf Marsh in Al-Mushrah district, Maysan Governorate, he talks about his family, which has depended on fishing and agriculture for many years. Al-Sanaf Marsh is considered a seasonal marsh that is largely fed by the Al-Tayeb River, the Al-Duwayrig River, and the floods in the winter season, and it empties into the Al-Hawizeh Marsh.

“When the winter season comes, life returns to Hor Al-Sanaf. I was six years old, and my father used to put me on his back and go on foot, covering a distance of no less than ten kilometers. This long distance, I see nothing but water, birds, mountains, and a number of fishermen sitting near the gap between the marsh and the Al-Masharrah area, where my father goes fishing every day with my uncles. He spends the night there and sometimes I go with them to spend the most beautiful times in the marsh. I still remember the amazing calm and serenity of the atmosphere and the smell of the Golan filling the place. Everything there was beautiful.”

Mortada confirms that winter is considered an important season for saving money, since the whole family works in fishing, but this beauty and well-being did not last for them as a following generation. “My family was displaced from near the marsh and lived inside the Al-Musharrah district, since the marsh is no longer suitable for habitation due to the charges directed against the residents of the marshes and the repeated arrests of my father, my uncles, and my relatives. Then they headed to the western governorates to work hard in construction, even though they spent most of their lives fishing which is the profession of our ancestors. What is happening is that we are being forcibly and indirectly displaced to live in a different environment that does not resemble our environment, which is full of water and reeds. Imagine being transferred to another environment that you have never thought about living in and that you do not know anything about. Then they meet your forced displacement with new racism, contempt, and hatred for your presence in their places.”

Power changed after 2003, and the people of the marshes were hoping for the best in the new government, which usually “disapproved of the actions of its previous counterpart” and that expressed that it would approach Iran and Turkey, for example, to give a water share to revitalize the Sinaf marshes, but it did not do so, just like the previous government.

“The marsh is now completely dry, and we are working independently.

After we migrated, the marshes and buffalo were sold despite the drought, but our hearts are still there in our original homeland.”

Mortada explains that what is happening to them is a clear obliteration of the marshland identity, human, animal, and environmental, and is nothing less than ethnic oppression. “Whenever I remember, the scene of the death of fish, or the sale of buffalo, which we consider part of our lives and our identity, and I recall the cries of my family as they bid farewell to their favorite animals who were part of the family, I cry, I yearn for my land, and I wish to return to it.”

The Ahwari citizen, Abbas Ahmed, believes, from his point of view, that it may actually be beneficial for the government to have this crisis, to make it a scapegoat for the housing crisis and security deterioration, to conserve water for the upper regions, and to ensure low-wage labor from immigrants. It even benefits the government in political alliances of parties with tribes. Tribal mobilization in elections and loyalty to religious and political leaders is a phenomenon used by parties to win the tribes over to their side.

“If there is anything to be said about this crisis, it is that the marshland migration continues, which is a source of suffering that has not dried up for a century. Generations and millions of people live this endless cycle of poverty, displacement, militarization, and inhumane conditions, and it shapes the country’s social and political relations.”

Environmental activist Raad Al-Asadi opposes this statement, stressing that the Iraqi government is facing a crisis that it cannot even justify, with the pressure being exerted on it to resolve the marsh crisis. “All tribes are affected by the drying up, and there is no plan to exploit the people of the marshes. Rather, the issue of water is an issue of external power against the will of helpless local authorities.” On the other hand the Ahwary network completely contradicts this narrative.