h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hi, Good info, thanks.

Some other info:

Fifteen years ago, 250,000 Marsh Arabs lived on 20,000 square kilometers of waterways and marsh, an area as large as New Jersey. Today only 40,000 remain.
After the regime began its assault on the marshlands, there was an exodus of Marsh Arabs to Iran. There was not a great deal of interest on the part of the Arab world to give them refuge. But Iran despite being a non-Arab country did agree to take in the Marsh Arabs, about 40,000 of whom now live in refugee camps there.

The southern Iraq marshes were formed over a 10,000-year period as a result of the annual flooding of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. They covered some 12,000 square miles and were home to a rich assortment of wildlife species. The only part of the marshes that remains intact straddles the Iran-Iraq border and is fed entirely by stream flows from Iran, which Iraq cannot control. That segment represents about 10 percent of the original marsh area.