Government drainage and irrigation schemes in southern Iraq have led to the loss of at least 90% of one of the world's most significant wetlands.
A vast network of canals has diverted water from the 20,000 square kilometres of marsh land between the Tigris and Euphrates, in places leaving nothing but salty, crusted earth behind.
Turkish dams upstream are also thought to have reduced the water flow and contributed to the wetlands' fate.
Scientists fear the marshes, the habitat of 14 globally threatened species and traditional home of Iraq's Marsh Arabs, may disappear completely within three to five years.
Most of the Marsh Arabs have fled, facing both political persecution under Saddam Hussein's regime and the loss of the freshwater which sustained their way of life.
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