Master's thesis at Al-Tariba College of Human Sciences, University of Basra/Department of Geography, Student (Iman Aqil Hassan)
The thesis dealt with the water reality of the marshes and the variation in its area from 1970-2020, addressing the processes of draining the marshes and its effects, and studying the natural and human changes of the marshes region in the three governorates (Basra, Maysan, Dhi Qar) and their impact on the shrinking of the marshes area over time. The study dealt with future predictions for the reality of the marshes until the year 2040.
The study aims to know the extent to which the Ministry of Water Resources plans to return 90% of the area occupied by the marshes for the 1970s in light of the natural and human changes represented by climatic and hydrological changes and the increase in the number of population and agricultural areas that worked to reduce the quantities of water allocated for the restoration of the marshes.
The two treatises concluded that the current water potential, as well as the future, cannot re-develop the marshes as they were in the seventies, and it cannot achieve the plan of the Ministry of Water Resources. In 2030, in light of the increasing water needs, the areas of the marshes will decrease to occupy 56% of the area of the marshes that they occupied in the 1970s, but in 2040 it will decrease further to occupy 41% of the area of the marshes that they occupied in the 1970s.
The letter recommended increasing the water nutrients reaching the marshes and reducing the quantities of water consumed, whether domestic or agricultural, for the purpose of increasing water allocations for the recovery operations of the marshes, in addition to setting serious plans with neighboring countries to increase water releases reaching Iraq and thus increasing the quantities of water reaching the marsh.
