Project to embed swamps south of Basra kicks off

Basra-Swamps BASRA / IraqiNews.com: A local company on Monday started to implement a project to embed swamps in south of Basra with a total cost 2.3 billion Iraqi dinars within projects to support services and reconstruction commission in Basra, the spokesman for the commission said. “A local company started today implementing a project to embed swamps in the far south of al-Fao with a total space of seven kilometers,” Rashied al-Fahd told IraqiNews.com, noting that these swamps will be embedded in 180 days. Al-Fao, 100 km south of Basra, had witnessed the fiercest combats in the Iraqi-Iranian war which lasts eight years. Basra, 590 km (340 miles) south of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, has an estimated metropolitan population of 2,300,000 in 2008. Basra, a Shiite province with 20 percent of the population are Sunnis, is the cradle of the first civilization of Sumer. It has the seven main Iraqi ports. The first built in Islam 14 A.H. (After Hegira), the city played an important role in early Islamic history. The area surrounding Basra has substantial petroleum resources and many oil wells. The city’s oil refinery has a production capacity of about 140,000 barrels per day (bpd). The only Iraqi outlet to the sea, Basra is in a fertile agricultural region, with major products including rice, maize corn, barley, pearl millet, wheat and dates as well as livestock. A network of canals flowed through the city, giving it the nickname “The Venice of the Middle East” at least at high tide. The only Iraqi outlet to the sea, Basra has the commercial ports of Iraq. SH (S)/SR 1