Iraq’s River Doctor

Iraq’s River Doctor By Alison Bullock Kagamaster Non-exclusive to AC May 20, 2006 Whether saving pigs outside of Rome or re-engineering the marshlands in southern Iraq, Italian hydrology engineer Andrea Cattarossi has for the past five years lived on two continents. Although Cattarossi and his wife-they were married in Boston in May 2003-relocated from Boston to his home town in Italy, de Treviso, Cattarossi not only works out of an office in Padua, where he attended engineering school, but he frequents Jordan, Kuwait and Baghdad as a consultant through an Italian engineering firm. As an environmental specialist, Cattarossi received advanced training through a southern Calif. floodplain expert Doug Hamilton.

These professional civil engineers are currently involved in building an infrastructure for the marshlands of south Iraq. In 2004 Cattarossi celebrated his 31st birthday in Baghdad where he met with water resource officials to continue the project based in Fullerton, Calif. and dubbed New Eden Project. When he travels to Iraq a non-governmental organization, the Iraq Foundation, provides accommodations for Cattarossi. He is driven through the desert landscape in an SUV usually manned by the foundation’s manager and engineer schooled in southern Calif. Azzam Alwash, native to the northern tip of the marshlands, also runs New Eden with his wife, a geologist. How did Cattarossi end up as a regular in Iraq? After Alwash returned to his country to help restore the land to its people, he contacted a native Iraqi engineer, Sam Ali, president of Psomas in Costa Mesa, for initial work in the marshlands.

The assessment then was that the most essential wetlands in the Middle East had been desiccated by Saddam Hussein and his former regime. Ali responded to Alwash’s call to action by contacting colleague and foremost authority on arid conditions of the world’s watering holes Hamilton, who in turn delegated the project to solve Iraq’s drainage problems to Cattarossi. After months of mapping and studying the marshland area, Cattarossi and Hamilton flew to Washington DC and Sacramento for a series of meetings to find supporters for their project. In Fall of 2003 Cattarossi embarked on an in-person fact-finding mission to Iraq. As a guest of the Iraq Foundation, Cattarossi’s initial visit included a guarded road trip from Baghdad to Bashra to assess the scope of work involved in re-flooding the marshlands.

Cattarossi returned to Italy carting copies of ancient Russian maps and firsthand knowledge about an ancient people displaced because their rich in natural resources region had been turned into a concrete military base. Hussein not only dried up the vast area of the marshes to flesh out enemies he claimed were staging a revolution from a thicket of reeds but in the process the former regime managed to displace thousands of Marshland Arabs. A people dependent on water for their existence for centuries. Marshlanders traditionally live in reed-thatched huts and chiefly fish for their livelihood. Cattarossi reports that since the dictator has been toppled, Marshland Arabs are returning to the countryside known for its reeds and date palms. “They [Marshland Arabs] know exactly what to do âÂ?¦ now that some water has returned âÂ?¦ they live simply, off the land, it’s an exciting time for them âÂ?¦ a time for them to return to their home in the marshlands.” Though Cattarossi’s family frets about his frequent journeys-he has returned to the desert country five times since Fall 2003-to war torn Iraq, one of his sisters says, “We worry about Andrea when he is gone to Iraq, but his work, it is important … he is making a difference in the world.”

Hamilton values Cattarossi’s contribution to engineering and in the case of the New Eden Project, to humanity and the environment. “I don’t know what we would do without Andrea’s help with our projects,” Hamilton says. “He is invaluable âÂ?¦ he’s young and focused âÂ?¦ he has a purpose.” Cattarossi’s focus on New Eden has thus far developed an Action Plan presented to a UN council to raise funds to restore water and establish a mitigation system for the people of the ancient marshes. Data gathering and fact finding trips have helped Cattarossi and other river experts to better assess the needs of the Iraqi people. Reports indicate encouraging news to support water restoration and in most areas the first clean water supply ever as an equitable plan in the near future. Prior to the invasion of Iraq, the marshlands suffered a 90% loss of water resources.

Through re-flooding, demolition of military structures and natural snow falls, the marshlands have been partially restored and in some areas, according to USAID, 60% of marshland waters are now restored. Alwash says since the Iraqi dictator was deposed there’s a new saying in Iraq: “As Baghdad goes, so goes Iraq.” As the waters are returned to a devastated cornerstone of Iraq’s culture other ancient treasures are resurrecting. Cattarossi recently trekked into the alleged Garden of Eden. He stood next to “the tree of knowledge” and climbed into the deserted ziggurat that was once the ancient city of Ur, home to the biblical patriarch Abraham when God called him hither. “And he said unto him, I am the LORD that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land to inherit it.” -Genesis 15:7 KJV That high calling for Abraham to leave Ur in search of the Promised Land appears to be in reverse as the “river doctor” emerges from a land of plenty to heal an ancient and broken land.