CHIBAYISH, Iraq — The small motorboat chugging through southern
Iraq’s marshes is
similar to those tourists use to explore the vast swamplands, the reputed home
of the biblical Garden of Eden.
اضافة اعلان
But this boat has a difference; it is used by
veterinarians as an animal ambulance to bring critical healthcare for
livestock, and especially the water buffalo iconic to the marshlands, facing an
ever-growing threat from the impacts of rampant pollution and
climate change.
“This veterinary ambulance is the first and only
initiative of its kind in the swamps of Iraq,” said veterinarian Karrar Ibrahim
Hindi, as he headed out to treat a sick buffalo.
The swamps, nestled between the Tigris and Euphrates
rivers and also known as the
Mesopotamian Marshes, is one of the world’s
largest inland deltas.
The wetlands barely survived the wrath of dictator
Saddam Hussein, who ordered the marshes be drained in 1991 as punishment for
communities protecting insurgents and to hunt them down.
But after Saddam was toppled, Iraq pledged to
preserve the ecosystem and provide functional services to the marshland
communities, and they were inscribed as a
UNESCO World Heritage site in 2016
both for their biodiversity and their ancient history.
Today, the people in the marshes eke out a living
from breeding buffaloes, as well as fishing and tourism.
Buffalo milk is renowned throughout Iraq for the
strength it is supposed to give to those who drink it, and farmers use it to
make the creamy “guemar” cheese, a delicacy that delights Iraqis served on flat
bread for breakfast.
After his consultation, Hindi hopped back into the
narrow boat, perfect for navigating the maze of thin channels.
He headed to another farm, with the homestead built
in the traditional manner out of cut and woven reeds.
Climate change, salty water
There are an estimated
30,000 buffaloes in the wetlands, but herds vary in size. Some
farmers have
just a handful of animals, while others have as many as a hundred.
But when the buffaloes fall sick, the farmers have
previously struggled to get proper veterinary treatment. Before, they had to
guess why the animal was ill, and go to get drugs themselves.
“The farmer cannot transport it to town, so they
risk making an incorrect diagnosis,” said Mukhtar Mohammed Said, director of
the Iraqi Green Climate Organization, which funds the buffalo boat project
along with the French branch of the
Vets Without Borders (VSF) aid group.
So with the farmers unable to bring their buffaloes
to the vets, the vets go to visit by boat.
At the home of buffalo breeder Sabah Thamer, the vet
team arrives to help his animals.
“Some herders don’t have money and they only have
one or two buffaloes,” said Thamer, explaining that the vet services are free,
but not the drugs the animals might need.
“They don’t know how to get them treated,” Thamer
added. “So the buffaloes get sick, their condition gets worse for two or three
days and they die.”
Hindi, the vet, dressed in a spotless white coat and
stethoscope draped around his neck, holds a buffalo by its neck with a gloved
hand, checking its pulse and taking its temperature.
“The service reduces the distances between the
breeders who live in the middle of the marshes and the veterinarians who have
their practice in town,” said Hindi.
As well as the usual sickness the buffaloes face,
the vets are helping the farmers confront the twin challenges of surging levels
of sewage dumped into the waters, and the devastating impact of climate change
with droughts growing in intensity.
In a country where the state lacks the capacity to
guarantee basic services, 70 percent of Iraq’s industrial waste is dumped
directly into rivers or the sea, according to data compiled by the United
Nations and academics.
The
UN classifies Iraq as the fifth most vulnerable
country in the world to climate change, and the country whose ancient name is
Mesopotamia (between rivers, in Greek) is hit by increasingly frequent longer, and more intense droughts.
The water level of the marshes keeps declining, a
problem made worse by dam-building in neighboring countries.
Along that, the salinity of the water is rising,
making the buffaloes weak.
“The animals suffer because too salty water favors
diseases,” said biologist Omar Al-Sheikhli, technical director of Green
Climate.
“If this continues, even the strongest buffaloes will die”.
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