Saddam ranks among the world's worst when it comes to environmental damage. First, there was his torching of several hundred Kuwaiti oil wells in 1991. Then, he drained the marshes between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers to punish the Shite "Marsh Arabs", killing untold thousands and inflicting massive environmental damage.

According to this CNN article, scientists are studying ways to undo some of the damage. It won't be easy - it's far more complicated that simply turning on the water supply.

The United States is studying ways to restore perhaps a quarter of the marshes of southern Iraq, drained by Saddam Hussein to crush the local Shi'ite population, according to a senior official.



Andrew Natsios, administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, told Reuters that research showed "we could probably restore maybe 25 percent of the marshlands with the existing water flows."

"...We are looking at what is hydrologically feasible given the current technology and water flows," Natsios said.

The Iraqi marshes between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers were home to a unique culture and complex ecosystem that lasted thousands of years. The wetlands were largely drained by Saddam to punish the population for supporting a Shi'ite uprising against his rule that erupted after the 1991 Gulf War.

Nearly 300,000 Marsh Arabs, also known as Ma'adan, were bombed, rounded up by troops, killed or forced to march out of the wetlands. Many others disappeared while the marshes that sustained them turned into a salt-encrusted wasteland. Now, fewer than 20,000 remain.