'Iraq's dried marshes cause dust cover'

Dubai: The layer of dust blanketing the Arabian Peninsula and the UAE, originating from Iraq, could be more specifically coming from the country's drying marshes once fringed by a fifth of the world's palm trees and consequently drained by then president Saddam Hussain, a scientist has said.

Iraqi professor of physics, Dr Mohammad Akef Jamal believes the dried up marshes of southern Iraq is one of many man-made disasters that hit Iraq, which was once the region's most fertile area.

The delta between the Euphrates and Tigers Rivers, that contained the ancient city of Babylon, is known as a fertile and dusty area. The confluence of the two rivers forms the Shatt Al Arab waterway that flows into the Arabian Gulf.

The Shatt Al Arab marshes were drained by the Saddam regime in the 1990s to prevent the militias from taking refuge there. Some scientists believe that dust from the dry areas there hang in the air in the Arabian peninsula.

A senior meteorologist at Dubai Met Department told Gulf News that satellite images show that the dust was lifted up from the Euphrates River area in Iraq. The area he was pointing to has marshlands but they are surrounded by desert dunes.

Experts believe that a storm kicked up the dust from Iraq and some specific conditions and wind movement sent a large amount of fine particles to the Gulf.
http://www.gulfnews.com/nation/Environment/10337225.html