Trawling Iraq's threatened marshes to collect plastic waste

An aerial view showing members of a French delegation touring southern Iraq's marshes of Chibayish during an environmental clean up campaign sponsored by the French embassy with local civil society organisations in the southern Iraqi province of Dhi Qar on May 19. Photos: Asaad Niazi/AFP

Iraq's vast swamplands are the reputed home of the biblical Garden of Eden, but the waterways are drying out and becoming so clogged with waste their very existence is at risk, activists warn.

"For 6,000 or 7,000 years the inhabitants have protected the marshes," said Raad al-Assadi, director of Chibayish Organisation for Ecotourism, who on the fourth week of May began work on a boat to try to clear some of the worst areas of trash.