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Azraq Wetlands The
second reserve the RSCN has focused on is the Azraq Wetlands.
After the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, the Azraq Oasis was opened to
settlement and hundreds of wells were dug to irrigate crops as
varied as olives and prickly pear cactus. The water table fell
from near the surface to 12 m below and the springs at the oasis
dried up. At the Azraq wetlands, ‘Ain Soda, the freshwater
spring and pool that feeds the Dashsha Marsh, the 12 sq. km
wetland, reversed itself and become a drain. When water from
geological sources was pumped into the pool, the pool developed
leaks and would not hold water, even with the spring sealed. The
Azraq wetlands, it was assumed, were doomed.
 The
RSCN’s solution was to sacrifice the ‘Ain Soda spring and pool
but pump geological water directly into the wetlands, a series
of channels that weave their way toward the center of the qa.
Along its way, new pools to provide bird habitat are being
constructed. A small herd of feral water buffalo obtained from
Syria has been introduced in an attempt to rid the wetland of
the plague of rank grass that now chokes it and to restore
something of its naturally grazed variety. These attempts to
save the Azraq Wetlands are subject to criticism in that an
artificial wetland is replacing a natural one. The alternative,
however, is no wetland at all, and its disappearance would mean
the destruction of hundreds of thousands of migrating birds that
depend on it.
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