'Report on the Development of Mesopotamia with Special Reference to the Regeneration of the River Systems' [‎3] (9/50)

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{h) MESOPOTAMIA AS IT IS.
(6) For practical purposes it is useless to dwell on the glories of the past, and
the act remains that Mesopotamia is to-day a miserable wilderness of barren
desert alternating with vast swamps ; there are stretches of cultivation along
the river banks and on the outskirts of the marshes, and large date groves thrive
on the Shatt-el-Arab and in the vicinity of Suk-esh-Sheyukh ; but between Basra
and Baghdad, on the Tigris, there is only one collection of houses that can be
dignified by the name of town, whilst, on the Euphrates, Suk-esh-Sheyukh,
Nasiriyah, Samaw a and Kerballa, are the only villages of any size between Basra
and Hit. All traces of civilization have disappeared except the mounds which
co\ er the lemains of 11 of the Chaldees, Babylon, Nineveh and Seleucia, to mention
a few of the many cities of the past; and ancient Baghdad is represented by a
vast area of broken bricks and rubbish ; whilst the inhabitants of Mesopotamia
to-day consist mostly of nomadic tribes with an ancient prescriptive right to
the occupation of large areas of country.
The climate is divided between intense heat in the summer and considerable
cold in the winter, and the mean annual rainfall at Baghdad is 8-|- inches.
(c) REASONS FOR THE DETERIORATION OF THE COUNTRY SINCE
ANCIENT TIMES.
(7) Sir William Willcocks, in his lecture before the Khedivial Geographical
Society, gave as a reason for the destruction of the Tigris canals a change in the
course of the river whereby the headworks of the canals were destroyed, and he also
gave the following lucid explanation for the destruction of the Euphrates irrigatioii
system:—•
" When the ancient Chaldeans—the men who travelled, from the East
and found a resting place in the plain of Shinar—first settled in these
regions, they must have found the Tigris and Euphrates flowing
in well-defined and capacious beds. Such capacious beds all silt-laden
streams naturally form for themselves when not interfered with by
external agencies. There were occasional heavy inundations of the
country, and occasional droughts, but generally the streams kept within
their channels. Such a state of affairs in a dry climate like that of
Mesopotamia, was eminently suited to irrigation, and the early settlers
must soon have undertaken irrigation works. As the population and
resources of the region increased, the irrigation canals become larger
until eventually the whole face of the country was covered with gigantic
canals, and the amount of water withdrawn from the rivers must have
greatly exceeded that left in the main streams. The main rivers
accommodated their beds and channels to suit the new conditions and
gradually dwindled away. Weirs and obstructions to raise the water
levels in years of insufficient supply still further told against the river/"-
until eventually the rivers were quite unable to carry the waters when'
not relieved by the canals. Dykes along the river banks protected
the country from occasional inundations, but the chief protection
existed m the well maintained canals which carried between them
no inconsiderable portion of the floods. In the unsettled times with
which for many generations these regions were cursed the dykes were
swept away, the canals silted up at their heads and were choked with
weeds lower down their courses and the rivers found themselves quite
incapable of carrying the extra supplies thus thrust upon them Th->