GOOD NEWS FROM IRAQ ...

... is hard to find most days (though I think there is tons of it the leftist MSM is not reporting).

The Scotsman reported this a couple of days ago; I wish I could have gotten it our sooner. It's so refreshing to believers that I'm reprinting most of the article by Hans Greimel ...

The marshlands of southern Iraq, considered by some to be the inspiration for the biblical Garden of Eden, have recovered to nearly 40 per cent of their former glory since the toppling of Saddam Hussein. The dictator's mismanagement turned much of the lush waterscape into arid salt flats.

But yesterday a United Nations report on a multi-million-pound restoration project revealed new satellite imagery showing a big increase in water and vegetation cover in the past three years. The marshes have rebounded to about 37 per cent of their 1970 extent, from about 10 per cent in 2002.

"The evidence of their rapid revival is a positive signal, not only for the environment and the local communities who live there, but must be seen as a contribution to wider peace and security for the Iraqi people," Klaus Toepfer, the executive director of the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP), said.

Saddam drained much of the Mesopotamian waters between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers by building dams, dykes and canals after the Marsh Arabs supported a Shiite Muslim rebellion following the 1991 Gulf War. Of almost 3,600 sq miles of marshes in 1970, the area had shrunk to 304 sq miles by 2002. As recently as 2001, some experts forecast the marshlands would disappear by 2008.

But restoration efforts since the fall of Saddam have reversed much of the damage, bringing the current marshland area to 1,400 sq miles. Re-flooding the marshes requires a delicate balance of salt and plant life. "It will be very difficult to restore the entire marshlands," Iraq's minister of water resources, Abdul Latif Jamal Rashid, said. Calling Saddam's draining of the marshlands "a crime against humanity", he said hoped 80 per cent of the marshlands would be restored in three years.

... Mr Rashid said the project also had other benefits, including a symbolic value for the Iraqi people and the potential to reduce migration to cities by improving agriculture. "It will help Iraqis return to a traditional way of life," he said. "Even people in the capital, who have never seen the marshlands, are really proud of the project."

... Last year, the UN announced a £6 million project, funded by Japan, to help restore the marshes and provide clean drinking water and sanitation for 100,000 people living there. The programme is providing settlements with water treatment systems and restoring reed beds that act as natural water filters. It is also training 250 Iraqis in wetland management and restoration.

At one time, the wetlands were the largest in the Middle East, filtering polluted water from northern cities and purifying it before it reached the southern rivers and the city of Basra.

Ain't that great? Cindy Sheehan your son would be proud to know he had a part in bringing this about!

Now if we can just keep the Sierra Club and Green Peace out of there the Marshland Arabs might have a chance!