Draining of the Mesopotamian Marshes
1950 CE.
Shown on the map at 31.040°, 47.025°.
The Mesopotamian Marshes were drained in Iraq and to a smaller degree in Iran between the 1950s and 1990s to clear large areas of the marshes in the Tigris-Euphrates river system. The marshes formerly covered an area of around 20,000 km2 (7,700 mi2). The main sub-marshes, the Hawizeh, Central, and Hammar marshes, were drained at different times for different reasons. In the 1990s, the marshes were drained for political motives, namely to force the Marsh Arabs (or Ahwaris) out of the area and to punish them for their role in the 1991 uprising against Saddam Hussein's government. However, the government's stated reasoning was to reclaim land for agriculture and exterminate breeding grounds for mosquitoes.
Text from the Wikipedia article Draining of the Mesopotamian Marshes, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.