Musawi said financial transfers within ministries could be “a solution to avoid the financial deficit we are experiencing and a quick fix to what may happen.”
The Mesopotamian Marshes represent a unique ecosystem in the Middle East. The 20,000 square kilometers (7,722 square miles) of freshwater surfaces extend over three Iraqi provinces — Maysan, Dhi Qar and Basra — and stretch between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.
This ecosystem provides life for nearly 80 species of birds, including the reed cane bird of Basra and the sacred ibis, as well as rare species of freshwater fish, wild animals, cows and buffaloes.
Fluctuating water levels, poverty, lack of job opportunities, illiteracy, ignorance and lack of education, health services and energy services are all prevailing phenomena in the regions around the marshes.
The concerns expressed by local officials in Dhi Qar were not the first; similar concerns were conveyed by the Water Resources Minister Hassan al-Janabi, who is also in charge of efforts to add Iraqi sites to the World Heritage List. Two days before the UNESCO decision to add the marshes to the World Heritage List last summer, Janabi said the ministry was concerned that Iraqi archaeological sites could be removed from the World Heritage List because of Iraq's failure to implement an administrative program to manage the sites in accordance with international standards.
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